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PORT ANGELES – A mental health court in Clallam County could be operating by the end of the year.

This week, Clallam County Commissioners agreed to move forward with the idea, after hearing research and a funding request.

Prosecutor Mark Nichols has been helping lead the effort in establishing the court. It would offer non-violent offenders, whose actions are deemed due to mental health issues, a chance to complete a supervised mental-health rehabilitation program in exchange for having charges dropped.

“No sex offenders would be allowed into the program. They present too high of a community safety risk. Nobody who’s charged with a violent offense, but there are categories of crimes that are allowed in. Disorderly conduct is a great example; lower-level petty theft is a great example; and malicious mischief. And in addition to having a categories of eligible crimes, there are categories of eligible diagnosis and you have to have both a crime that’s eligible as well as have received an eligible diagnosis. It’s voluntary participation. And then there will be a series of benchmark obligations you’ll need to meet and comply with as a precondition to graduating.

The court would be operated in Judge Dave Neupert’s District Court. It will require the county hire a professional coordinator and staff member to keep the program running. That’s expected to cost upwards of $250,000 a year. Neupert and Nichols asked the county commissioners to use reserves from a current sales tax for mental health and dependency issues to pay for the program.

County Chief Financial Officer Mark Lane says there’s enough money to fund the mental health court as well as the other programs funded through the tax.

“I see this fund still having, obviously, we’re not going to be carrying in year 10 the level of reserves that we’re seeing today. But it certainly is going to still have a level of reserves that I think are within a realm of comfort of being able to continue to operate.”

The county hopes to advertise for a coordinator in the next month, with plans to start the court before next year.