AURORA | Court officials in Arapahoe County are touting “problem-solving” courts as alternatives to jail for convicts whose addictions and mental-health issues have regularly landed them in court.
The 15 graduates of Arapahoe County’s Wellness Court, which began in 2009, has saved the county around $200,000, according to Michael Tessean, a wellness coordinator with the 18th Judicial District. The court provides adult defendants with a diagnosed mental illness treatment and intensive case management as an alternative to jail. Those savings come from those inmates not taking up a jail bed, says Arapahoe County Criminal Justice Planner Jack Reed. He says that an average inmate costs the jail $70.59 per day. An inmate with a mental illness costs $85 per day due to having to keep up with medications and providing psychiatric services.
“You’re talking about a high-risk population where jail is no longer a deterrent,” Tessean told residents at a town hall meeting April 17. “We have a lot of clients who say, ‘Just let me do my time.’ Unless you’ve had a true intervention, jail doesn’t work.”
Tessean and other court officials say specialty courts like the wellness court are more successful than trial courts because they require extensive, ongoing face-to-face time between court officials and defendants. Many of the programs require weekly court appearances, ongoing drug testing, therapy and case managers to help defendants with daily life skills.
“Where we see success is with intensive outpatient treatment,” said Magistrate Bonnie McLean, who oversees the wellness court as well as a recovery court for repeat offenders who are drug addicts at the Arapahoe County Justice Center in Centennial.
Zelda DeBoyes, court Administrator for the Aurora Municipal Court, also spoke about Aurora’s newest problem-solving court which began in January 2013 for women with convictions related to prostitution, a population DeBoyes said has been poorly served by Aurora’s courts in the past.
The program, called Females Utilizing Treatment and Undertaking Recovery Efforts, or FUTURE, is close to having its first graduate out of eight who are participating in the program, according to DeBoyes.
In the program, the women are treated by psychiatrists, licensed therapists, case managers and peer mentors, and they live together in a “safe house” in an effort to protect their privacy. Carrie Smart, who oversees the FUTURE program, says many of the women have a dual-diagnosis, such as a mental health or substance abuse issue. She added that prostitution in Aurora has become more difficult to track as technology has advanced.
“In the women’s court, we’ve seen a change in prostitution as it’s moving from streets to an Internet-based system,” she said.
Eric Nelson, an at-large member of the Aurora Public Schools Board of Education, asked court officials at the meeting whether they support restorative justice, an alternative that emphasizes victim and offender communication over punitive measures for young offenders.
“For us, restorative justice has been successful 7 out of 10 times we’ve used it,” DeBoyes said of Aurora’s Useful Public Service Program, which like restorative justice, promotes community engagement as a way to rehabilitate offenders. The program provides some youth who are in school full-time the option of working with a non profit for $7 an hour as a way to serve out their sentence.
Statewide, Colorado judicial officials have launched 78 similar “problem-solving courts” that operate in 20 districts. In 2013, the 18th District also launched a veteran’s court for military members with mental health and substance abuse issues is located in Douglas County.
Excellent view on how our government leaders are looking for new ways to help people with age old problems. We just cannot keep throwing people in jail anymore. Being a compassionate society, we (the people) need to help those that can and want to be helped.