Carbon County has been awarded over $100,000 to help with a mental health initiative for the county’s criminal justice system.

On Thursday, the county commissioners approved the award of funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency in the amount of $108,464, slightly lower than requested. The money is for a mental health initiative, crisis management and pretrial diversion by supporting a salary for a part-time social worker/case manager and for a psychologist to perform evaluations on individuals in the criminal justice system who have been identified as having mental health issues.

The grant is effective through Dec. 31.

Carbon County applied for this grant in September after chief public defender attorney Paul Levy requested the county look into this grant.

At the time, Levy said that mental health issues have always been a major problem with clients and that approximately 24 percent of inmates nationwide suffer from some type of mental health issue.

The grant will help Carbon County’s public defenders’ office, as well as several other court offices, to get some help early on for offenders going through the court process.

The two positions would identify and work with offenders to provide resources for mental health issues, while the social worker would provide training to police and emergency responders to identify mental health issues in offenders.