BERRIEN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BUSY APPLYING FOR GRANTS TO BETTER LIFE IN BERRIEN COUNTY

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent

ST.JOSEPH – Berrien County Commissioners have started the annual process of applying for state grants to fund the county’s specialty courts. That action came at last week’s county board meeting held at the MSU Extension Center.

Problem-solving courts are nontraditional programs that focus on nonviolent offenders whose underlying medical and social problems have contributed to recurring contacts with the criminal justice system. Among the court programs are those addressing sobriety, family issues, mental health and drug treatment.

Last week, commissioners approved resolutions applying for grants for the mental health and drug treatment courts as well as the Swift & Sure program for the 2020 fiscal year.

Berrien County is asking for $220,000 from the Michigan State Court Administrative Office for the Regional Mental Health Court that is operated in conjunction with Cass County. The local share for the grant is $19,419. The mental health court has operated since 2009 with the Riverwood Center providing mental health services for the county.

The county is also asking for $93,500 from the SCAO to continue to operate the county’s drug treatment court. The local match is $91,356. The drug treatment court has operated since 2010 in Berrien County and gets additional funding from the Office of Community Corrections and Southwest Michigan Behavioral Health.

The drug treatment court’s purpose is to combine court supervision with drug testing and substance abuse treatment to help people overcome their addictions.

The grant application for the Swift & Sure Sanctions Probation Program is asking for $175,000 from the SCAO. The county’s local share will be $8,318. The program has operated in Berrien County since 2012 and has the goal of reducing the rate and numbers of probation violations, revocations and longterm recidivism.

News about the awarding of the grants is usually released each fall.

Area court officials have touted the importance of the specialty court programs throughout the last several years. They’ve pointed to the specialty court’s success in treating people’s mental health and substance abuse problems and keeping them from committing more crimes.

For example, 2017 information showed that unemployment among Swift and Sure graduates was reduced by more than two-thirds. Previous analysis also showed that graduates were 36 percent less likely to reoffend, compared to those who completed regular probation programs.

Last year, nearly $3.5 million in grant funding was awarded to 25 courts in 28 counties around the state to fund their Swift and Sure programs. The SSSPP targets high-risk felony offenders with a history of probation violations or failures.

Similarly, 31 mental health courts received nearly $5.2 million from the SCAO. Analysis over the years has shown that graduates of mental health courts statewide were nearly two times less likely to commit another crime two years after completing a program.

As for drug court programs, more than $12 million in grants were awarded statewide last year for the operation of 80 different courts. Drug treatment courts have been found to help adult drug court graduates so they were much less likely to commit another crime and more likely to find employment.

The National Association of Drug Court Professionals reports that 20.2 million Americans have a substance abuse problem and 43.6 million have a mental health problem. They noted that 65 percent of U.S. inmates have a substance abuse disorder.

“Treatment courts save lives every single day,” the organization noted. “They employ a holistic approach that goes beyond simply treating substance use disorders. They improve education, employment, housing, and financial stability; promote family reunification; reduce foster care placements; and increase the rate of mothers with substance use disorders delivering fully drug-free babies.”