The new Kosciusko County Reentry Court has its first participant, the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety heard Friday from Superior Court I Judge Karin McGrath.
She went before the board for approval of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Reentry Court and the city in regards to the city giving $30,000 of its opioid settlement restricted funds to the Reentry Court. The Warsaw Common Council approved the donation at their meeting Jan. 21, as well as determining to form a committee to hear future opioid settlement funding requests.
McGrath said the funds will “assist us in our program to help reintegrate offenders who suffer from opioid addiction or addiction that leads, obviously, to other types of addictions, and help successfully reintegrate them into the community, partnering with service providers in the community, working on their physical, tangible needs, as well as some significant counseling, therapy, whatever the case may be.”
She noted she signed the MOU and asked the board approve the funding.
City attorney Scott Reust, who also serves as the defense attorney for the Reentry Court team, asked McGrath to say what she could about the court’s first participant and what started him down the path of addiction.
“Our first participant started drinking at an early age. Sometime in - I believe 2007, perhaps - had an accident with a saw, cut off some fingers, was prescribed opioids,” she stated.
The person subsequently became addicted, but when he could no longer get the pills, he turned to methamphetamine and became a regular user ever since. He ended up incarcerated for possession of methamphetamine.
“But, very committed and ready to turn things around, stay sober, be a productive contributing member of this community, and it’s been exciting to see,” McGrath said. “We just met Wednesday morning and there he sat, dressed in street clothes. He is living at the Harbor’s Housing, it’s part of Bowen Health, receiving all kinds of wraparound support services. High supervision. Drug testing in place and counseling services. He’s undergone a full psychological assessment and is being placed in the right types of services that he needs to continue his journey.”
The participant was very honest, she continued, and admitted that the first day he got out of jail he was tempted to go use.
“That’s what he’s known but he did not. He reached out to his support people there at his housing facility, and talked things through. So far, so good. It’s the beginning of a very long journey, but we’re excited to provide him the services and support he needs to be successful,” McGrath said.
Councilwoman Diane Quance said one of the things the city council was impressed by was all of the agencies that are represented on the court’s board that makes the decisions on who is eligible to participate in the Reentry Court. After a lengthy discussion, she said the council not only did agree to provide the $30,000 from the opioid settlement restricted funds, but also to appoint a task force to look into future opioid settlement funding requests. The funds for the Reentry Court are the first the city has granted outside of city use.
Mayor Jeff Grose said the city providing the funds was an opportunity “to be good neighbors and try to help people.”
Reust said when the state of Indiana started reaching the opioid settlements, there was a great deal of discussion about what the money would be appropriately used for.
“They created their ‘Attachment E,’ as we talked about. A great deal of the Attachment E was for programming, people involved in the criminal justice system ... I think Judge McGrath’s program hits it square on the head, and certainly the first participant was directly affected by the opioid crisis, and I think the program’s doing some good things,” Reust said, and is one of the things the settlement dollars is intended for.
Quance made the motion to approve the MOU, board member George Clemens seconded it and it passed 3-0.
Additionally, Reust said, “At the council meeting, as it relates to these settlement funds, the council discussed that they are going to put together a committee to help make recommendations to the council and to the Board of Works on to where maybe it would be best to distribute future settlement funds. So that, I know, the formation of that committee by the council is in the works.”
He said he hopes they’ll hear from the committee soon because after the story about the city giving $30,000 from the settlement funds to the Reentry Court came out, people reached out to the city interested in “maybe an opportunity to take advantage of some of those funds” for other uses.
Grose said Council President Jack Wilhite contacted his office and they’ll be working this spring to form that committee.
“Obviously, we’ll need council approval, but the whole goal is an advisory group to help us steer discussion to the council, for hopefully eventual approval of the wise use of these dollars in the future because it’s not over. These dollars will be coming for many years, and I just think this is a good thing for us to do, for the council in this case,” he said.
She went before the board for approval of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Reentry Court and the city in regards to the city giving $30,000 of its opioid settlement restricted funds to the Reentry Court. The Warsaw Common Council approved the donation at their meeting Jan. 21, as well as determining to form a committee to hear future opioid settlement funding requests.
McGrath said the funds will “assist us in our program to help reintegrate offenders who suffer from opioid addiction or addiction that leads, obviously, to other types of addictions, and help successfully reintegrate them into the community, partnering with service providers in the community, working on their physical, tangible needs, as well as some significant counseling, therapy, whatever the case may be.”
She noted she signed the MOU and asked the board approve the funding.
City attorney Scott Reust, who also serves as the defense attorney for the Reentry Court team, asked McGrath to say what she could about the court’s first participant and what started him down the path of addiction.
“Our first participant started drinking at an early age. Sometime in - I believe 2007, perhaps - had an accident with a saw, cut off some fingers, was prescribed opioids,” she stated.
The person subsequently became addicted, but when he could no longer get the pills, he turned to methamphetamine and became a regular user ever since. He ended up incarcerated for possession of methamphetamine.
“But, very committed and ready to turn things around, stay sober, be a productive contributing member of this community, and it’s been exciting to see,” McGrath said. “We just met Wednesday morning and there he sat, dressed in street clothes. He is living at the Harbor’s Housing, it’s part of Bowen Health, receiving all kinds of wraparound support services. High supervision. Drug testing in place and counseling services. He’s undergone a full psychological assessment and is being placed in the right types of services that he needs to continue his journey.”
The participant was very honest, she continued, and admitted that the first day he got out of jail he was tempted to go use.
“That’s what he’s known but he did not. He reached out to his support people there at his housing facility, and talked things through. So far, so good. It’s the beginning of a very long journey, but we’re excited to provide him the services and support he needs to be successful,” McGrath said.
Councilwoman Diane Quance said one of the things the city council was impressed by was all of the agencies that are represented on the court’s board that makes the decisions on who is eligible to participate in the Reentry Court. After a lengthy discussion, she said the council not only did agree to provide the $30,000 from the opioid settlement restricted funds, but also to appoint a task force to look into future opioid settlement funding requests. The funds for the Reentry Court are the first the city has granted outside of city use.
Mayor Jeff Grose said the city providing the funds was an opportunity “to be good neighbors and try to help people.”
Reust said when the state of Indiana started reaching the opioid settlements, there was a great deal of discussion about what the money would be appropriately used for.
“They created their ‘Attachment E,’ as we talked about. A great deal of the Attachment E was for programming, people involved in the criminal justice system ... I think Judge McGrath’s program hits it square on the head, and certainly the first participant was directly affected by the opioid crisis, and I think the program’s doing some good things,” Reust said, and is one of the things the settlement dollars is intended for.
Quance made the motion to approve the MOU, board member George Clemens seconded it and it passed 3-0.
Additionally, Reust said, “At the council meeting, as it relates to these settlement funds, the council discussed that they are going to put together a committee to help make recommendations to the council and to the Board of Works on to where maybe it would be best to distribute future settlement funds. So that, I know, the formation of that committee by the council is in the works.”
He said he hopes they’ll hear from the committee soon because after the story about the city giving $30,000 from the settlement funds to the Reentry Court came out, people reached out to the city interested in “maybe an opportunity to take advantage of some of those funds” for other uses.
Grose said Council President Jack Wilhite contacted his office and they’ll be working this spring to form that committee.
“Obviously, we’ll need council approval, but the whole goal is an advisory group to help us steer discussion to the council, for hopefully eventual approval of the wise use of these dollars in the future because it’s not over. These dollars will be coming for many years, and I just think this is a good thing for us to do, for the council in this case,” he said.