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The diversity of conference attendees and speakers was incredible. There were people there from as far away as Iceland and New Zealand and it was interesting to hear about how their criminal and juvenile justice systems are structured and operated. Guest Speakers Kim Newsome & James Turner, Oasis – Local mental health agency in Hillsborough that provides mental health services for children and adolescents, outpatient therapy, psychological testing, comprehensive clinical assessments, and substance abuse services. Starting adolescent SAIOP groups this coming week and is open to young people to come as they need. They provide screening services, comprehensive clinical assessments, and will meet teens and families where they are. They like to have parent involvement and will offer Saturday and evening sessions to accommodate their work schedules. Cait Fenhagen & Kate Giduz, Misdemeanor Diversion Program – Started in April 2016 and was modeled after the program in Durham. It is located within the Orange County Criminal Justice Resource Center. The goal of MDP is to keep 16 and 17 year olds out of the criminal justice system and avoid the collateral consequences of adult charges. Currently the program serves 16 and 17 year olds but may consider moving the age up to 21 as the program becomes more established. North Carolina is one of only two states that still charges 16 and 17 year olds as adults despite recognition that this population are not adults and that if they can be diverted on misdemeanor charges and avoid the adult criminal justice system they can avoid the collateral consequences – future employment, housing, financial, etc. Even charges that end up in dismissal, they don’t ever go away without time and money for expungement. Most of the major law enforcement agencies are on board and outreach is still being done with a few of the smaller agencies (UNC Dept. of Public Safety, Park Police). The goal is to have 100% of eligible MDP cases into the program. Eligibility criteria include: 16 or 17 at time of the offense; no prior charges in adult court (not even pending); youth with a juvenile record ARE eligible; misdemeanor offenses only – no firearm offenses, sex offenses, traffic citations, or undisciplined. The MDP process begins by giving the 16 or 17 year old a card instructing them to contact Cait, Program Administrator, within 72 hours; an incident report is completed, but not entered into any public database; a referral form along with the incident report is submitted to the law enforcement liaison; the liaison confirms that the referred is an eligible participant and sends the information to Cait within 48 hours; Cait meets with the referred and does an intake interview; they are placed on a 90-day diversion plan, which includes 10-15 hours of programming and a mandatory educational court information session (educates them on the collateral consequences of the adult criminal justice system). If the youth is compliant with the requirements, Cait will contact the liaison and the officer who originally referred the case and the case will be closed completely. If they are not compliant, the liaison and referring officer has the decision to make on whether or not to file formal charges. It is important to note that the officers have the ultimate discretion on whether to refer cases to MDP or send to district court. Right now the program is trying to make sure that the officers remember that they have the option of referring to MDP. To date MDP has seen 22 referrals, more males than females, more white than African American and Latino, 15 successful completions, and 2 referrals that had to be turned down for insufficient