DULUTH — A little over a year ago, Chad Jasper was sitting at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center on a probation violation, knowing that any further slip-ups could result in a prison sentence.

That’s when his public defender recommended he apply for the South St. Louis County Mental Health Court. Jasper filled out some paperwork, met with a pair of probation officers, and the next week, he was out of custody and attending his first session.

On Friday, he became the latest graduate of the intensive treatment program that seeks to reduce incarceration and recidivism by addressing participants’ underlying mental health and substance use disorders and getting their lives back on track.

“Fourteen months is a long time, but it was short to me,” Jasper told his fellow participants and th

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