By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — The newest effort to support convicted criminals in ways to keep them from being incarcerated again is up and running in Kosciusko County.
The local justice system already has a drug court and and the community recovery program, and now, there’s is a Re-Entry Court run by Superior Court 1 Judge Karin McGrath who says the focus of this program is on “high-risk, high-need defendants who need a lot of accountability and structure.”
Participants are released from incarceration early, and provided with various services including mental health services, drug testing and weekly meetings in court to track their progress.
“It’s pretty intense,” McGrath said after providing an update to Kosciusko County Council Thursday night.
The court takes a problem-solving approach, and for dependants, it is likely one of the rare times they see a judge providing advice not associated with a sentence.
She said the stakes are high for the participants.
“If they choose not to take their e-entry, recovery and rehabilitation seriously, the worst case … is they are terminated from the program and they return to do the sentence they otherwise would have done,” McGrath said.
The city of Warsaw provided $30,000 in opioid settlement money for the program and the county council approved more than $100,000 Thursday to cover remaining costs.
The court already has its first participant and McGrath is hopeful it can grow.
She said she thinks the new court will dovetail nicely with the drug court and the jail’s CRP.
The court already has its first participant and McGrath is hopeful about the future.
“We’re not wanting to rush to add too many (participants). We’re building as we go, but we’re hoping we get to the point where we have a really thriving court,” she said.
