Carbon County is eyeing a $1 million federal grant to help female offenders in the criminal justice system.

On Thursday, the county commissioners voted to support an application that Pinebrook Family Answers of Allentown is submitting on behalf of Carbon, Northampton and Lehigh counties to create a comprehensive reentry program for women. The Second Chance Act grant is through the Bureau of Justice Assistance.Richmond Parsons, chief adult probation officer, explained that the grant is very competitive, with only seven or eight awarded nationally.The grant, if successful, would be distributed over a three-year period."This is a collaborative effort going after female offenders," Parsons said, adding that Carbon County has seen a disproportionate increase of females entering the criminal justice system."From 2010 to 2017, we went from 25 percent of our population to 38 percent being women," he said. "In the jail, they saw from 2010, 17 percent to now 28 percent. We're seeing a definite disproportionate increase in the system."Commissioner William O'Gurek added that the county is aware of this increase because the warden recently had to shift around cell blocks to accommodate the influx of female inmates at the prison.Parsons said that the program, entitled "Leaving Jail: A Comprehensive, Regional Reentry Program for Women" addresses gender specific issues and programming before the females being released from jail and then follow up with them after they leave.According to the goals, the program aims to reduce recidivism among women and successfully reintegrate them back into society.Parsons added that the program would be tailored specifically to each county's needs.Bob Jacobs of Pinebrook Family Answers was also on-hand to speak about the initiative.He said that the program is evidence-based and has proven results and in addition, Pinebrook would partner with the Lehigh Valley Research Consortium to collect data from the three counties over the three-year period to help strengthen the knowledge for the reentry program.Jacobs added that the organization feels it has a very strong application because of two mergers in recent years. Family Answers and The Program for Women and Families merged with Pinebrook to become the organization that it is today.He said The Program for Women and Families has been successful on two previous occasions with securing grants from this federal organization for program implementations in the Lehigh Valley.The grant application is due by Wednesday and will be awarded this fall.If successful, the grant would begin Oct. 1.