BERRIEN COUNTY RECEIVED GRANTS TO FUND BOTH TRIAL COURT AND COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS OPERATION AND PROGRAMMING

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – Berrien County officials recently announced that the county has received state grants to fund both Trial Court and Community Corrections operations.
The Community Corrections grant is for the 2024 fiscal year and is from the Michigan Department of Corrections. The grant being awarded by the MDOC is for $172,375. County officials applied for the grant in April and received word in September that they would be getting it. The grant requires no local match.
Berrien County Commissioners formally adopted the resolution accepting the MDOC grant at their meeting last week. Grant funds can be spent in the fiscal year running from Oct. 1, 2023 through Sept. 30, 2024.
The grant will provide funding for a number of programs. Programs and the funding they will receive include the Pretrial Supervision Program, $83,930; Men in Crisis, $22,000; Substance Abuse Testing, $28,000; Behavioral Health Assessments, $7,080; training, $2,000; and Community Corrections Advisory Board, $29,365.
The Berrien County Trial Court has received continued state funding for the county’s two treatment courts along with the Swift and Sure Sanctions Probation Program for the 2024 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
The Trial Court received notice of three grant awards from the State Court Administrator’s Office, totaling $422,000. These funds will continue to support the successful operations of the Drug Treatment Court, Mental Health Court, and Swift and Sure Sanctions Probation Program.
The Mental Health Court was established in 2009 with Judge Al Butzbaugh as the first presiding judge. There are currently 19 active enrollees and there have been 149 graduates to date. The Mental Health Court targets those individuals on probation for both misdemeanor and felony level offenses with serious mental illness.
The Drug Treatment Court was established in 2010 by Judge Angela Pasula. There are currently 23 active enrollees and 133 successful graduates to date. The Drug Treatment Court targets individuals on probation for felony level offenses who have a significant substance abuse history.
The Mental Health Court and Drug Treatment Court are both currently run under the supervision of the Honorable Donna B. Howard. Defendants for both Mental Health Court and Drug Treatment Court are referred from multiple sources including the prosecutor’s office, public defender’s office/private defense bar, Michigan Department of Corrections, and Trial Court probation.
The Swift and Sure Sanctions Probation Program (SSSPP) was established in 2012 by the Honorable Sterling R. Schrock. SSSPP is an intensive probation program for felony offenders only and targets those felony probationers who are identified as high risk for failure on probation.
The program accepts those individuals who could have been sentenced to prison but were given an opportunity to succeed on probation in the community. There are presently 105 active cases and 271 successful completions to date. The Honorable Charles T. LaSata and Honorable Gary J. Bruce currently preside over the SSSPP docket.
In other action, County Commissioners have renewed their annual contract with the Andrews University forensics lab. The contract for the 2024 year starting Jan. 1 is $147,818. The lab tests controlled substances seized by law enforcement agencies in the county with results used to prosecute drug related cases.