This blog is part two of our series focused on NIU’s impactful partnership with DeKalb County Court Services. Learn more about the partnership in Part One: NIU Partnership Has Helped DeKalb County Court Services Become a Model in the Midwest.
For over a decade the NIU Department of Sociology (now the Department of Sociology and Criminology) has worked with the DeKalb County Treatment Court to enhance public safety and improve outcomes for non-violent offenders. NIU Sociology Professor Carol Walther, retired faculty member Jack King, and their students have gathered and analyzed the data necessary for the treatment court to obtain state authorization and to continue evaluating and improving its services.
The DeKalb County Treatment Court consists of the Drug Court, which offers treatment-based alternatives to non-violent offenders with drug and DUI charges, and the Mental Health Court, which provides treatment-based alternatives to offenders who have severe and persistent mental health disorders.
Together, these treatment courts enhance public safety by combining effective substance-abuse and mental health treatment with intensive judicial supervision. Local and national research have shown that treatment court graduates have substantially lower re-arrest rates compared to offenders who did not go through treatment court programs.
Keep reading to learn more in our conversation with Jackie Biasiello, DeKalb County Pretrial Services supervisor, Michael Venditti, director of DeKalb County Court Services, and NIU Professor Carol Walther.
Jackie Biasiello
Can you start out by giving an overview of the Treatment Court Program?
Jackie
Our treatment court program incorporates two different branches. We have the treatment court side, which is the drug and DUI court, and we also have a mental health court. We have three probation officers who handle the caseloads between the two programs.
The treatment court programs are intensive, so an individual has to go through multiple assessments to qualify. Once an individual is deemed a good fit for the program, they enter a plea that their attorney and the state’s attorney have agreed upon. That plea allows them to enter the program and work through the program phases as their court-mandated probation. Depending upon the specific drug, DUI or mental health issue the person is addressing, the program has either four or five phases with specific requirements.
What are some of the phases and requirements?
Jackie
One requirement for the drug court program is sobriety time. Another requirement that’s common for both programs is to get a job, take classes or give back to the community in some way. Depending on the specific court order, that may require community service, a domestic abuse intervention program, or a substance evaluation and counseling program.
We have three counselors in house on our team, and we also partner with the Northwestern Ben Gordon Mental Health Center to have the staff needed for evaluation and ongoing counseling sessions with each individual.
What role does NIU play in this program?
Jackie
Professor Carol Walther and Jack King keep track of a lot of data for the treatment court so we can get a good overview of who is participating in treatment court and how effective it is. Some of their students perform quantitative analysis of our data to give that overview, and others use observation to collect qualitative data.
For example, recently some of Carol’s students analyzed how the judges spoke to the participants, what things they talked about outside of specific court-required information, such as motherhood or sports. The students found that if the treatment court participants feel that the judge cares about them, then they complete the program more quickly and everything goes more positively. That’s valuable information we can use to continue improving the program.
Another type of study students recently worked on was a “reduction of harm” study. Three students – one sociology major, one sociology minor and one political science major – found that the average reduction of harm was 140 days for people in treatment court programs. That means 140 days on average where participants were sober, showing up for work or community, were not arrested and so on. So that is a way to quantify the impact of the treatment court program.
Michael
The treatment court program is overseen by the administrative office of Illinois courts, and they have some very specific requirements for data reports. We also have numerous grants that require data and impact reports.
The data analysis that Jack, Carol and their students provide help us fulfill those data reporting requirements, which is a huge benefit to help us continue funding the program.
Can you share a bit more about why the treatment court is a positive alternative to incarceration?
Michael
The idea is to address the issues that drive criminal behavior, which we call in our field “criminogenic factors.” There are certain factors, such as addiction or mental illness, that are driving the criminal behavior we’re targeting. If we can identify and address the core issues, then often we can eliminate the criminal behavior and help people reintegrate into their families and communities.
This is a very intensive, therapeutic approach that is much more than standard probation. It involves intensive therapy, it may involve finding the correct medication and dosage to treat pervasive mental health issues. And it has very favorable outcomes, which has helped to make treatment courts very popular to the point that they are now standard practice within the field.
Do you have any success stories to share?
Jackie
For me, the graduations are always really inspiring because you get to see when people are at that final completion phase of the program. They have hope and a renewed sense that they want to continue living a sober lifestyle and bettering themselves. For the last 18 months or so, they’ve been working very hard to better themselves. At the ceremony, they get to thank the people who helped them, and you can tell they’re really excited to continue moving forward on this positive path.
Often, they’ve gotten their children back, they have a job and their family relationships have improved significantly. Their family members are present and often cry at the graduation.
One of the powerful things we do is to show their mug shot and then their final picture when they’ve completed the program, and the difference is very powerful.
Sometimes we have people return to the program because substance addiction is very powerful and hard to overcome. But it’s truly amazing to see the moment when it clicks, when there is a distinctive shift in the participant. Even if they need to come back again, we still achieve harm reduction, and we begin to give them some tools that help them avoid committing a new felony crime even if they relapse. It’s all focused on harm reduction and making an impact on the individual while also keeping the community safer.
Carol
The team always tell the participants that they can reach out again, whether it is good or bad. I have seen team members help former participants get back into treatment. Before a participant leaves the program, they must have three visits with a counselor outside of the program.
Although Jack King is retired from NIU, he’s not finished helping DeKalb County Treatment Court!
As members of the nonprofit volunteer organization Friends of DeKalb County Treatment Court, King and Richard Schmack work to increase public awareness of and raise funds to assist with the DeKalb County Treatment Courts.
Jack and Richard recently visited Professor Walther’s Gender and Crime course to talk about treatment court. Friends of DeKalb County Treatment Court also recently won a $3,000 Community Needs Grant from the DeKalb County Community Foundation. This is a powerful example of a county, university, nonprofit partnership.
