State Grants Boost Van Buren Specialty Courts by $1.6M

We all know that there are times when we “get by with a little help from our friends,” and the team at the Van Buren County Specialty Courts are certainly thankful for friends in the state grants office. To the tune of a collective nearly $1.6-Million for the year ahead.

For fiscal year 2020, the State Court Administrative Office has awarded Van Buren County a total of $716,795 for several systems including:

The Drug Treatment Court
Family Reunification Court
Swift and Sure Sanctions Probation Program
Adult and Family Recovery Courts
Sobriety Court

The Office of Justice Programs, under the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program, has awarded Adult Recovery Court a 3 year, $750,000 enhancement grant. Both support programs that reduce crime and recidivism associated with people with mental illnesses.

Lastly, the State Community Corrections Board through the Michigan Department of Corrections has awarded the Van Buren Office of Community Corrections a total of $128,879 to support pretrial supervision services.

The Drug Treatment Court grants provide for continued operational expenses including court personnel, drug testing supplies, mileage for case management, treatment services, and training. Van Buren’s Drug Treatment Court currently serves approximately 80 participants per year. Defendants in that program must have a diagnosed substance use disorder and be a non-violent offender to be eligible for this intensive supervision and treatment program. The program has been in operation since 2008, has served 532 men and women and has excellent outcomes including a 16-percent recidivism rate among program graduates 12 months after completion. Without drug court programming a study conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 76.9-percent of offenders were rearrested within 5 years, with nearly half of those within the first year of release.

The Family Reunification Court grant through the State Court Administrative Office provides for continued operational expenses including court personnel, various treatment services, drug testing supplies, and mileage for case management. Since its inception in 2012 it has served 102 families. Data indicates that child abuse and neglect have been reduced by the program’s existence. There has been no substantiated abuse or neglect complaints among open cases and 90-percent of graduates maintained or regained custody of their children at program discharge. Additionally, 100-percent of babies born in the program were born free of all substances.

The Swift and Sure Sanctions Probation Program grant provides for continued operational expenses including court personnel, mental health services, substance abuse services, jail lodging, defense attorney representation, drug testing supplies, and mileage for case management. At capacity, that program has the ability to serve approximately 50 high risk probationers per year. Those probationers are intensely supervised by Van Buren County Swift and Sure Case Managers and the Michigan Department of Corrections. The program has been in operation since 2012 and has excellent outcomes including a 54-percent successful completion rate which is higher than the state average of 40-percent and a 34-percent recidivism rate among graduates compared to the 64-percent probation-as-usual comparison group.

Van Buren County Recovery Courts received State Court Administrative Office funding as well. Those grants provide for operational expenses including court personnel, mental health personnel, mental health treatment services, drug testing supplies, defense attorney representation, mileage for case management, and training. The program began in September 2015 and has served 20 youth and 52 adults to date. The target population is non-violent offenders, with pending misdemeanor or felony charges, who are assessed as having a persistent and serious mental illness or developmental disability.

The Office of Highway Safety Planning awarded Van Buren County funding for sobriety court, which is entering its 3rd operational year. That program served 55 OWI 2nd and 3rd offenders through case management, intensive supervision, frequent drug testing, and substance use treatment. Since implementation, no program graduate has been charged with or convicted of a new misdemeanor or felony operating while intoxicated charge.

Lastly, the Van Buren Office of Community Corrections seeks to limit state prison commitments for County offenders, prevent overcrowding at the Van Buren County Jail and protect public safety by diverting felony offenders into rehabilitative programming and pretrial supervision services.

Van Buren County Courts administrators say they would not be successful in the various Specialty Court programs without the intense collaboration, commitment and valuable time of all stakeholders including: