OSWEGO — Labette County commissioners received a brief update on Monday on the 11th Judicial District Recovery Court, which recently received news that it will be funded for the next four years.
District Chief Judge Lori Fleming and Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas’ counselors Daniel Creitz and Sarah Elnicki attended. The judicial district, which covers Labette, Cherokee and Crawford counties, teamed with CHC to apply for the grant and operate the drug court which aims to reduce crime and substance abuse, reunite families and increase community safety.
The federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant totals $989,298 over four years. Most of that money goes toward medical-related expenses tied to helping Recovery Court participants.
Judge Steven A. Stockard, who is assigned to Labette County, is presiding over Recovery Court. Fleming said the district is
See COURT, Page 12.
still operating a pilot program that has 11 participants, eight of them from Labette County, in drug court that’s been operating since the summer.
Since learning of the funding, Fleming said CHC and judicial district personnel have been setting benchmarks for the next four years on how many participants to include. At the end of the four years, the court will need to have had 65 participants. The program lasts 18 months to two years and involves the court system and dental and medical providers, as well as drug treatment professionals. The idea is to turn participants’ lives around, get them away from drugs and guide them toward being productive citizens again.
Current staffing in the 11th Judicial District is taking on the additional caseload, which limits for now how many participants the program can accept.
“We could fill these spots tomorrow if we wanted to, truthfully, between our three counties with the substance abuse issues that we have. It would overwhelm our system,” Fleming said.
Instead, the program will grow incrementally over the four years. The next benchmark will be to have 15 to 25 participants in the first year.
She said the program only accepts non-violent offenders, no drug dealers, and those who commit crimes that are tied to drug abuse. On probation, a defendant may get 15 minutes a week with a probation officer because of caseload. The Recovery Court has probation officers, mental health counselors, medical and dental professionals as well as housing consultants.
“It’s kind of just a wrap-around intensive program that gets to the root of why they are using, why are they commiting crime,” Fleming said.
The model has seen success nationally. “It’s been a huge problem, and it’s a huge need,” Commissioner Vince Schibi said.
Fleming said the court will be a marathon not a sprint. In the end, if the program finds success that others have nationally, it could eliminate a lot of the “frequent flyers” in the court system that have legal issues from drugs, to juveniles in need of care and limited action cases relating to unpaid rent and other issues.
Creitz said he and Fleming and others have talked about the need for the program since about 2018.
The program has hired a coordinator, Bryan Dyson, who works as a conduit for the participants and others involved in the program.
He said the Department of Justice requires quarterly reports and he said he would share those with commissioners to serve as an update for the program.
“We are very excited to be where we are,” Creitz said. Elnicki said the court convenes every other Thursday in Pittsburg. Staff meets at 1 p.m. to review progress and participants show up at 2. The program offers transportation to court for the participants.
The court formerly convened Friday but that was moved to Thursday to give participants Friday to meet with medical or treatment professionals, rather than having to wait until Monday.
Participants are on probation and have to qualify for the program, testing as high-risk, high-need based on evaluations.
Commissioner Terry Weidert asked about successes of the programs nationally.
Creitz said about 75% of the participants in similar programs never use drugs again.
Law enforcement is also involved in the program. Fleming said word is getting out about the drug court in communities. One person in the court gallery in Parsons asked Judge Stockard about the court between cases, she said.
