#8 Trauma-Informed Justice: Comfort dogs and more in the Beaverton Municipal Court

The Center Collaborative: Creative Solutions in Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice

Juliet Britton, Beaverton Municipal Court Presiding Judge, discusses:

• The importance of addressing concerns early with repeated low level crimes to connect people to services to support long term stability and decrease recidivism in the future at the municipal court level;
• The Mental Health Liaison position at the court - a clinician in court to provide coordination and connection to civil services and housing, which has lowered the court’s failure to appear rate and is showing a promising reduction in recidivism rates;
• The comfort dog program for court participants and for staff through a partnership with Dove Lewis. Dogs in court (virtual and in-person) increase feelings of calm and relaxation with participants who are coping with significant symptoms and trauma history. The dogs are also brought in for staff as a way to promote staff wellness within a stressful work environment; and
• Beaverton Police Department’s Community Policing Program and their collaboration with the court. Police build rapport with participants in the community and take the time to have conversations with participants to support their involvement in programming and the court.

For more information about the intersection between criminal justice and behavioral health in Oregon, please reach out to us through our website at http://www.ocbhji.org/podcast and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OCBHJI/. We’d love to hear from you.

For more information about treatment courts, visit OCBHJI’s treatment court toolkit at http://www.ocbhji.org/toolkits-and-resources/treatment-court-toolkit/. For more information about trainings offered by OCBHJI, visit our training page http://www.ocbhji.org/training/.

Social media for Dove Lewis PACTT (Dog Therapy Teams): Facebook - @fortheloveofdove; Instagram - @dovelewispdx; Twitter - @dovelewis.

Social Media for the City of Beaverton: Twitter – @CityOfBeaverton; Facebook – @CityOfBeaverton; Instagram – @CityOfBeaverton.