By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW — Along with granting $30,000 of the city’s restricted opioid settlement money to Kosciusko Superior Court I’s new problem-solving court, a Reentry Court, on Tuesday, the Warsaw Common Council determined to form a committee to hear future settlement dollar requests.
Summarizing the information she presented to the council on the Reentry Court, Superior I Judge Karin McGrath explained, “Reentry Courts are designed specifically for the high-risk, high-need offenders currently serving a sentence who will be released into our community and who need skills to reintegrate successfully into our community. They need assistance, support in doing so.”
Traditionally, the offenders have just been continously locked up every time they offend, and when the jails get full, new jails are built.
“It’s not effective. It’s not fighting crime. It’s expensive, and it’s not solving the problem – the underlying issues that are causing these individuals to continue to offend,” McGrath said. “These individuals need the ability to be assessed for their unique needs, whether those are addiction needs, mental health needs. They need to have an individualized plan provided and prepared for them full of services – rehabilitative services, counseling, support; maybe things like housing, transportation, things that help them reintegrate successfully so they have other options rather than just return to a criminal lifestyle or a life of further addiction.”
With McGrath at Tuesday’s council meeting were Chief Probation Officer Tammy Johnston and Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dan Hampton, who currently are two of the Reentry Court team members. Though not present Tuesday, Assistant Probation Director Kelly Krugman has served temporarily as the interim coordinator and case manager for the Reentry Court until a full-time person can be hired for the position.
“We also have representation from Bowen Center, who we will rely on heavily. That’s one of our community partners that we will be collaborating with, along with many others,” McGrath said.
Other team members include Community Corrections Director Barry Andrew and defense attorney and city attorney Scott E. Reust.
Mayor Jeff Grose brought up that in a letter to his office, which the council has seen, the Reentry Court was asking for assistance in funding the program, specifically $30,000 from the opioid settlement funding. He asked Reust to provide a history of the opioid funding.
“As you know, the prescription opioid lawsuits have been pending for some time. I think nearly every state in our country have sued pharmaceutical manufacturers for the opioid prescriptions that were written and doled out. While that’s become much more tightened, they reached settlements specifically for this kind of thing — to help prevent the harm that was caused by some of this opioid addiction,” Reust responded.
“My understanding is, part of the settlement funds we’re expecting to receive funding for, I think the next … 16 years … and that settlement number is growing each year of what we’re expected to receive because more lawsuits are getting settled, more defendants are being enjoined.”
He said he thinks the Reentry Court is a suitable, if not the ideal place, for some of the opioid funds to go. He talked about how people beyond the offender are affected, including children, siblings, parents and the community.
“From where I sit as a defense attorney, some of the stuff I see is people just dig themselves such a deep hole that when they get released from jail, they have nowhere to go except for either back exactly where they were where the trouble started, or worse,” Reust stated. “Many people live paycheck to paycheck or having no paycheck.”
He said hopefully what the Reentry Court is going to be able to do is get “those people who … need some assistance to get back on their feet, to get the skills, like she said. I think that’s what’s going to happen, and I think we’ll see improvements across the board and Ms. McGrath won’t have to deal with some of the difficulties in all aspects of her court if this Reentry Court is successful.”
The Drug Treatment Court has been in Kosciusko County for over a decade, Reust pointed out, and there’s been “great returns” on that problem-solving court. Other problem-solving courts that have been implemented with success across the state and country, according to information provided by McGrath, include Veterans Court, Family Recovery Court, Drunk and Impaired Driving Court, Mental Health Court and Domestic Violence Court.
McGrath told the council her court was the “very grateful” recipient of a grant from the Indiana Supreme Court Office of Court Services that is assisting with the initial funding for the Reentry Court to hire a full-time coordinator and get started with some of the services they want to put in place, like drug testing and GPS monitoring.
“It’s just not enough to do everything that we want to accomplish to make a difference,” she said.
Asked by Councilwoman Diane Quance what the court’s initial goal was for the program, McGrath said they will help as many as they can help.
“It will depend a bit how many services we can implement, and that’s to some extent where funding comes into play. Even with just one case manager/coordinator, I don’t see a reason why we can’t have 15, 20 participants,” McGrath said.
Opioid settlement funds come in restricted and unrestricted categories. Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen said the court’s request fits into the restricted category. The unrestricted is more open-ended. Grose said in the city’s opioid settlement unrestricted funds, there is a total of $104,863.36, and in restricted funds there is $271,984.17.
“So, again, what can we do A. to be aware of it and more is coming, and B. what are the needs from the community, city, county, towns, other organizations that are standing up and fighting against this huge problem,” Grose said.
Christiansen said what the city received in all of 2024 in unrestricted funds was $60,000 and almost $150,000 in restricted funds. She said there was about $109,000 or $119,000 budgeted for 2025 in the restricted funds, but there was no “set thing” that the money was budgeted for.
Reust said if the council chose to take action Tuesday to grant the court $30,000, he would draft a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the city and the Reentry Court to be approved at the next Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said she had no problem with plans to go forward on that Tuesday.
Christiansen brought up her discussion with Grose about the council establishing an opioid settlement funds committee. Councilman Mike Klondaris agreed with the idea of a committee to look at any requests that were made for the money.
Quance said with the city having over $271,000 in opioid funds, they should give the Reentry Court the money now so they can get going on the program now. The committee can look at future requests.
Wilhite asked Grose how did he envision the committee being set up. Grose suggested a member or two of the council, the police chief, Reust and another stakeholder or two who are directly or indirectly involved in this type of issue.
Wilhite asked what the urgency of the funding was. Hampton responded, “Because the program is just starting, that’s why it’s so important to have the money as quickly as possible now so we can get the program up and running. This is not money that’s going to be used for ongoing program. It’s actually money that’s going to be used to get the program going. Seed money. So that’s why we’re here tonight: To show the urgency to try to get this thing off the ground and running.”
Klondaris wanted to know if the county was putting any money into the Reentry Court, which began this month. In reiterating what McGrath said earlier, Hampton said they have not gone to the county to ask yet.
“So the county’s opioid money, last I heard, a big chunk of it went to the Kosciusko County Recovery Program (KCRP). So they’ve already distributed out a lot of money for that program. We will go and ask them to consider it as the money distribution comes out for 2025 for Reentry Court,” Hampton said.
After further discussions, Councilman Juergen Voss made a motion for Reust to prepare a MOU between the court and the city to distribute $30,000 of the opioid settlement money to the Reentry Court. Klondaris seconded it, and the motion passed unanimously.
By consensus, the council agreed that a committee would be established for future funding requests. That committee’s makeup will be announced at a future council meeting once it’s decided.
In other business:
• Reust gave Gordon Nash the oath of office for the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Protection Territory Board.
• Re-elected Jack Wilhite as council president for 2025.
• Heard the 2024 Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department year-in-review report from Superintendent Larry Plummer. The report is similar to what he presented at the parks board earlier Tuesday.
