Spirit in Action
Healing Justice, Part 1
Reformatories seldom reform, and penitentiary seldom produce penitence, but groom criminals to re-offend. For certain offenders, treatment courts achieve impressive results and save lots of money, bringing bi-partisan support.
- Duration:
- 55m
- Broadcast on:
- 12 Oct 2014
- Audio Format:
- other
[music] Let us sing this song for the healing of the world That we may hear as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along And our lives will feel the echo of our healing [music] Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpes Me. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred food in your own life. Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world That we may dream as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along In the search for justice, courts in America are given the heavy burden of sorting right from wrong and imposing consequences which will deal with the safety and well-being of our communities. And often, this has meant jail time, time behind bars, or lock them up and throw away the key. America also has the dubious distinction of imprisoning a significantly higher percentage of its citizens than any other country in the world, a consequence significantly of the war on drugs originated in the 1970s and its application with racist colored glasses and a tough on crime policy, including things like three strikes in your outlaws. Is there a better way to deal with at least some crimes? It appears that the answer is yes, and we'll find out more as we talk with participants of treatment courts in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where I live. Just one example of a nationwide movement to be smart on crime, resulting in greatly improved futures for criminals whose root problem is mental health or drugs or for mothers who need and want to be doing the crucial work of raising kids. This is part one of a two-part series, and for today's spirit and action, we'll visit with the supervisor of Eau Claire's treatment courts, Melissa Ives, and afterward we'll talk to some of the persons who've chosen to do the hard work of treatment healing and reform rather than simply sit time in jail. Right now we'll get Melissa Ives on the phone Eau Claire treatment courts supervisor. Melissa, welcome to spirit and action. Thank you, Mark. I'm glad to be here and talking about the treatment courts. Treatment courts. I don't know if this is a term that everybody knows how many people are familiar with it. When did treatment courts start? Treatment courts actually date back in the United States in 1989. That's when Miami-Dade County, Florida began the first drug court because it saw that traditional sentencing was not effective for a lot of the addictive offenders that were coming through their court system. And since then, it's really been an idea that has spread like a wildfire throughout the nation. Wisconsin started its first court in 1996, and Eau Claire County began its first court in 2004. So in 2004, what happened in Eau Claire? Actually, starting back in 2003, Judge Stark took note of what was going on elsewhere along with other folks in Eau Claire County and started planning for a drug court to address the needs of substance-dependent offenders who are coming through the courts and whom, again, traditional sentencing was not effective. So that evolved into what we have today as drug court and eventually led to the start of three other courts in Eau Claire County as well. What we call the alternatives to incarcerating mother's court or in court, which began in 2007. The mental health court, which began in 2008, and a veterans court, which is actually a three-county court, which began in 2011. And we'll get into each of those individual types of treatment courts, but the comment you made, traditional courts were not effective with them. I have my doubts that traditional courts are effective with other criminals, but is there a special difference with people who have drug problems or mental health issues? Are these particularly different in terms of recidivism or other changes that happen for prisoners? Well, there are certain needs, obviously, that addictive offenders have and folks with mental health diagnoses have that other offenders don't possess. And there's no reason to believe that they're going to necessarily get better in jail or prison if there's no treatment provided. And generally, there isn't a lot of treatments available behind bars. And what we do have available is a lot of really great treatments within the community. And that's what the treatment courts allow us to do, is to hook individuals up with some wonderful treatment opportunities within the community. At the same time, providing structure and accountability that is also needed to help motivate individuals to work toward recovery and towards healthy living within the community. You said that Judge Lisa Stark was at the beginning of this, so it started in Eau Claire area from a judge who was actually seeing this. Do judges, before that time, were they handling all of these cases just as regular criminal cases? I believe so. Basically, the way we've dealt with offenders in the past has been through jail and through prison. Treatment courts seek to really shake up that response by, again, allowing people to remain in the community, but really providing a very structured environment, a very accountable environment, partnered with treatment for mental health and substance use disorders in an effort to try to break that cycle of recidivism and really return people as healthy individuals to the community. You mentioned four different types of treatment courts, and I was wondering, Melissa, which you've had experience with or what roles you've had with respect to them. I mean, I know you're the supervisor for the courts, but have you seen more of the nitty gritty? What's going on individually? My involvement has been more from a grant writing standpoint in a project direction standpoint. I wrote a grant for Eau Claire County back in 2011 that resulted in a $1.2 million award from the federal substance abuse and mental health services administration. For the past three years, I worked as the project director for that grant. That grant has actually ended officially September 29th, but since then we've been able to get a couple of other grants from the state as well. And one of those actually allowed me to continue on in a supervisor position for the courts. My involvement is more, again, from a project management or program management standpoint, but I also work with the triage teams or a few referrals and to really institute policies and procedures that are conducive to producing the best outcomes possible for the courts. As well as seeking funding sources to maintain the sustainability of the courts, which is really a key focus right now moving forward in an area of tight budgets. We really need to show the value that treatment courts provide in order to maintain them as a funding priority for the county and for the state. I'm probably a pushover, but could you please prove to me that this is cost efficient to use treatment courts instead of the regular courts? We already had convinced me. Sure. Well, we've had a lot of great outcomes so far. We've served roughly, I think, around 370 individuals since 2004 when you consider all four courts. The recidivism rate for the general probation population. Well, the data that we have for the two longest-standing courts, I think, is fairly convincing. And again, those two courts are the drug courts and the AIM court. Drug courts served just about 200 people since 2004, and AIM court has served a little under 100 since its inception. For the drug court, we're seeing that only about 27% of individuals recidivate or commit a new offense that results in a conviction within three years of graduation. And that really falls in line with the national average for treatment court participants. What's really neat about that is we see only about 12% of OWI offenders reoffending within that window. And we're talking about folks who sometimes at 5, 6, 7 or more OWI offenses in their past. So it's a pattern in their life, and we're seeing that pattern interrupted as a result of drug court involvement. We also see that individuals who don't finish the program recidivate at a much higher rate. So we're talking about 50% of individuals who don't finish the drug court program end up with a new conviction within three years, as opposed to only 27% who do finish the program. And when you say don't finish, what do you mean by that, Melissa? It's not an easy program. There is a lot of accountability involved in a treatment court. So there is regular drug testing. There is a need to appear before the judge on a weekly basis at first, then eventually biweekly or every three weeks, depending upon the phase. There is a lot of treatment involved. There are just a lot of requirements in general involved. And in order for a person to remain in the program, they need to be willing to comply with those requirements. Now, obviously, nobody's going to be perfect, and folks do mess up, and there's some allowances for that. But if somebody shows repeated noncompliance over a period of time, or if somebody shows themselves to be a public safety risk, they will be terminated from the program. And so not everybody who starts the program finishes the program. Those who do start the program and finish it show significant positive results. Is there a danger? It doesn't sound like it from what you're describing, but is there a danger that this is really just something for soft-carded people who are soft on crime. They don't want to hold people accountable. Is that even a possibility with this alternative? I think it's easy for that perception to live, but I think the reality of it is there's nothing easy about going through a treatment court. I think if folks saw the schedules that some of these folks have to keep, if they saw all the requirements that are involved, they would see that there is nothing easy about the program. In fact, some of the things that I've seen, I won't want to have to keep that schedule, so we're asking a lot of these participants in order to allow them to remain in the community. And thankfully, a lot of them, at this point in their lives, are willing to take that step and are ready for change, are ready to change their lives around, and to benefit from the opportunity that they've got available to them through the treatment courts. You mentioned that budgets are tight, you've always got to cut whatever fat is there. My assumption is, because it reduces recidivism like it does, that this is actually saving money, it's reducing what goes into the budget. Since you're in charge of writing grants, though, and this has been funded by special grants, how hard is that and what's the future for finances for these alternative treatment courts? Well, I think kind of pluses and minuses. On the plus side, I think you're seeing a lot of momentum across the state right now for treatment courts, not just across the state, but across the nation. I talked about the first court starting in Miami-Dade County in 1989. There are now literally thousands of treatment courts across the nation. I don't recall the number in Wisconsin, but it has grown exponentially in recent years. And again, we've actually got four courts in Eau Claire County, which I believe leads the state at present. There is a lot of momentum behind treatment courts, and the legislature is starting to back that up as well. The treatment alternatives and diversion grant through the state originally served only a handful of counties during the past year or so. That has grown substantially. There are now dozens of counties that are being awarded grant funds by the State Department of Justice for treatment courts. Now, that money doesn't go all the way toward funding treatment courts. It's only kind of a drop in the bucket, but it shows that the will has changed within the legislature. There is a need there to deviate from what we've been doing in the past, which hasn't been effective in treating individuals with substance use and mental health disorders. There is a need to provide treatment and to improve outcomes, so we don't keep cycling people through the criminal justice system. The momentum is there, but we need to continue that momentum because funding does continue to be tight, and grant funding isn't something that you can rely on indefinitely usually. And so I think what's really needed is a dedicated source, a dedicated allotment from the state for treatment courts specifically in order to maintain their long-term sustainability. Is there a particular deadline coming up about financing within Eau Claire or within state of Wisconsin or at the federal level? Well, Eau Claire County, like many counties, is currently in its budget process. And so county board members are looking at budgets not just for the treatment courts, but for all of human services in all of the county and trying to determine the best way to allocate available dollars. And that's something that is going to continue on for, I believe, the next month or so. There is a, I believe, a public review and comment session on the county budget in early November, so that will give folks an opportunity to take a look and provide the county board with feedback on the budget. And that's a great opportunity to let citizens have their voice be heard on the treatment courts or whatever is of interest to them within the county budget. So that process is ongoing right now and really will be key to determining how much funding we have available in the future for the treatment courts. I was interested to hear that at least on Wisconsin level, and I assume this is true in other states, that this is the kind of effort that can get support from both sides of the aisle. That because it is cost efficient, because it is people efficient, it gets support both from Republicans and Democrats. Is that how the situation looks here in Eau Claire on state nationally? Is this getting bipartisan support everywhere? That's certainly what we've seen locally. I know that both Senator Vinehouse, who's a Democrat and Representative Patrick, who's a Republican, I have both been very public in their support for treatment courts as have other senators and representatives. And so I think that's just a good example that this is a bipartisan issue. It's not a Democratic issue. It's not a Republican issue. It's how do we use our criminal justice resources most effectively issue? The evidence is in, I think, is shown by the legislature's increased commitment to the TAD grant we discussed. Folks are looking for a better way to address some of those criminal justice needs. And again, the traditional system has not worked well for these folks. This is an opportunity to break up that cycle of recidivism and also to help people maintain long-term recovery to keep their families intact and to really be contributing members of the community as opposed to sitting behind bars somewhere. Do we have any sense of how many people really need this service but can't get it? How do you limit who gets in and determine, unfortunately, therefore, those who don't get this special treatment? There is a referral process that's open to anyone who wishes to utilize it. There's a treatment court referral form that needs to be submitted. And what we call a triage team meets on a weekly basis to review those referrals and to use the criteria that we have set to help understand whether those individuals would be appropriate for a treatment court and if so, which would be the one that's most conducive to meeting their needs. The criteria that we use very somewhat, depending upon the court, but there are some very basic factors that we consider. For example, for all that the veterans court, the person needs to be a resident of Oakley County. They need to be an adult and they need to be what we would say moderate or high risk. What that means is that there is a good likelihood they are going to re-offend unless there is some kind of intervention in their life. So we're trying to target those folks who can benefit most from those resources. Those are some of the basic criteria. For drug court and AIM court, we're also looking at individuals who have a substance dependence. They may have a co-occurring mental health disorder. In fact, I would say the majority of our folks do have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Mental health courts target those individuals whose mental health needs are a little bit greater individuals who may not succeed as well in one of those other courts. AIM court specifically targets mothers with dependent children, maybe a pregnant woman or maybe a woman with minors in the household. But each court kind of targets a different person. Veterans, obviously, targets veterans. So each court has a slightly different population that they serve. Some individuals may potentially qualify for multiple courts and we try to determine which court would be most effective in serving that person. I'm still wondering how many people are not being served. I don't think you have enough funding to put everybody through these programs. Well, and truthfully, we don't really know exactly how many people we could serve. We only have a record of the individuals who have been referred. We do know, though, that the treatment courts are generally always at capacity. At least the drug court and the AIM court and mental health court now are all operating pretty much at capacity, which means that some individuals need to wait a while to come into the court. Yet times there were more than a dozen folks really on that. I hate to say it, but the back burner this past year because there was no time to serve them and there was no capacity within the courts to serve them. And those are only the folks who are being referred. We have a sneaking suspicion there are a whole lot of other folks who could be well served within the treatment courts, but don't have anybody who either is familiar with the treatment courts to refer them or who doesn't really understand how the treatment courts might help them. I think I have two questions here. One is, who does these referrals? And if someone gets a referral, does that mean they're going to be in the program, eventually, even if they have to be, as you said, put on the back burner? Just about anybody can submit a referral. We really don't limit that. It's generally defense attorneys or Department of Corrections agents who are making the majority of referrals. We've also had quite a few of the individuals refer themselves. Sometimes it's a family member or a friend. Sometimes it's a social worker. There are really a number of different sources that may refer an individual. And that's one of the reasons we're trying to increase awareness is to make sure that folks in the community are aware of this resource, which can provide a very beneficial intervention in people's lives. Give me an idea of what kind of resources are for these different courts. What are the different resources that they have available for these courts that you don't get in the regular jail population? Well, one of the biggest differences is there's a case manager who works closely with the person and with the Department of Corrections to develop a case plan, which helps target some of those needs that that person has, what we call some of the criminogenic needs, which are factors that contribute to that person committing crime in the first place. So we look at some of those things and we try to figure out what can we do to help you take crime free in the future. So we've got things like substance abuse treatment. That's a big one. We've got treatment groups that talk about criminal thinking and how to change that criminal thinking to try to address that factor. We've got other groups that address trauma. Trauma is a huge issue for a lot of folks on the criminal justice system. The majority have some significant trauma histories and without addressing that trauma piece, sometimes it's hard to address some of the other needs that the person has. That's really become one of those services that's become a really big factor in our treatment courts over the past few years and something that we really think is important to continue. So there's that piece of it, but then we also work with people to help them address things like employment, stable recovery oriented housing, getting insurance, food, clothing and so forth. So really trying to look at the person holistically and meet all of those needs. And again, hopefully we'll turn them in a healthy manner to the community and not just promote their own health and recovery, but the health of their families as well. Do you have a sense of what makes a person a prime candidate for a referral? I mean, there's a lot of people with various drug problems, including alcohol. There's a lot of mental health. What makes someone a prime candidate for these courts? There are a couple of really key factors. One of them is the type of crime they've committed. So for drug or aid court, it needs to be a felony offense or what we call a habitual misdemeanor. So somebody who has repeat misdemeanors, for mental health court, it can be any misdemeanor. For veterans court, it could be, again, any misdemeanor or a felony charge. The other thing we look at, again, is that risk factor. We're trying to really take in those individuals who have a moderate to higher risk level. In other words, a good chance that they're going to be assigned without some kind of significant intervention. We don't take low risk individuals. And the reason for that is because research shows us that when you mix low risk individuals and higher risk individuals, there's a good chance that you're going to basically make those lower risk individuals higher risk. There's kind of a negative impact on those individuals who on their own probably will self-correct anyway. So we're really targeting those individuals who aren't going to self-correct without some kind of intervention in their life. So those are kind of some of the key factors. What we do when somebody comes into the court as we screen them with a number of different validated instruments, one of them which is used by the Department of Corrections across the state is called the Compass, which is a risk needs assessment. It talks about their risk level to re-offend as well as the types of criminogenic needs they have, those factors that contribute to that criminal activity. Now, we also screen them with something called the TCU Drug Screen 2 to help determine their substance abuse level, as well as their mental health through the correctional mental health screen. We use what's called the PTSD checklist, which screens for trauma, TCU Criminal Thinking Scales, which looks at criminal thinking, and then something called the ureca. The University of Rhode Island Change Assessment, which looks at their motivation to change. And it's not to say that we don't accept people who aren't ready to change, but we do like to understand up front where they are at in that process. Are they considering change? Are they ready to change? Where are they at in that process? Or is that something we need to address early on? Is their motivation to change? So we have all of these different tools that we use to kind of help us understand whether somebody's appropriate for a treatment court. And if they are, what kind of treatment needs to be targeted to help them be successful? So you've had a number of people come through these courts since 2004. Some people go through prison, go through a course, and they come out star graduates. I think Nelson Mandela, I guess he graduated from 20-some years in prison in South Africa, and he became president of the nation. Do we have any star graduates that we can mention that were allowed to mention? Of course, since this is court business, you generally don't put a lot of names over the air unless they want to have their names out there. Right. And I would say yes, we do have quite a few star graduates. As you put it, individuals who have been extremely successful since leaving the court. And I would say there have actually been some other individuals who have been successful after leaving the court without even graduating. So I'd like to give a couple of examples, one of an individual who successfully graduated from AIM court and another of an individual who did not graduate from mental health court. Both are doing fantastic right now, thanks in part to the treatment that they received during their participation in the program. One of the ladies I'm thinking of is actually a leader of the AIM court alumni currently had committed some financial crimes and gone to jail. And while in the jail, met with a psychiatrist and had realized that there was something going on and she didn't understand it and found out that she was bipolar. And that kind of helped her to understand some of the reasons for some of the things that she was doing. Actually, graduated relatively quickly from AIM court and has really been a wonderful cheerleader doing fantastic. Has two boys, I believe, and a husband and it's just doing wonderfully in family life and really an employment and just doing a fantastic job since graduation. One of the other people I would point to had been in mental health court several years ago and really didn't meet the requirements of the court eventually was terminated. But since that time has actually gotten on the right path and moved to Florida and is doing fantastic and is coming back to the court actually to visit and is going to be made an honorary graduate. He's doing so well. And so even if somebody fails or quote unquote fails at first, that doesn't mean that they're not headed closer to recovery. We've had some wonderful success stories over the long term. Well, let's talk about the future. Are there other treatment courts that are possible in the future? Is it just expansion of this, expansion of staff? What would be the rosy future that we'd have with respect to treatment courts? Well, I think, again, there are a lot of folks that we could serve who aren't currently being served in the treatment courts. We do run into some challenges when it comes to resources. And when we talk about resources, we're not just talking about treatment resources. We're talking about judicial resources because one of the key elements, if not the central elements, of a treatment court is the judge. And unless there's a judge who is able and willing to devote sufficient time to a treatment court, it's not going to work. And that's where we probably run into challenges as far as expansion comes because right now we probably have one or two fewer judges than we really should have in Eau Claire County. Based upon workload and without additional time available to those individuals, it's pretty difficult to try to expand the courts. Now, we have some wonderful judges in Eau Claire County who've gone above and beyond the call of duty to try to serve these participants. But there's only so much that any judge can do and fulfill their other responsibilities. So that's one of the key challenges moving forward as far as expansion goes. You said, Melissa, that attorneys are some of the people who give referrals for these courts and that people can refer themselves. Is there any organized effort to get the word out there so that people know that treatment courts are an option? I think there's a pretty good awareness among certain attorneys and certain Department of Corrections agents. But I would say as a whole, within the community, there's not a great awareness of the treatment courts, either what they are or who they serve. And that will be one of my major challenges moving forward as a supervisor is to raise that visibility within the community to help people understand the value of the treatment courts and hopefully generate more referrals and also generate more resources so that we can serve people more effectively and produce better outcomes for their involvement within the criminal justice system. When individuals commit crime, they're going to be exposed to one sentencing alternative or another. So let's provide the sentencing alternative that produces the best outcome. It does look like a really necessary and important feature of our court system, something that it seems so obvious and intelligent. So I think it's really important that I talk to more of the people in the courts and we'll do that in just a moment. I want to express my appreciation to you, Melissa. And again, we've been speaking with Melissa Ives. She is supervisor for the Eau Claire treatment courts. You'll find them maybe in your state and in your locality. Just look them up treatment courts and there's drug courts and mental health courts and there's courts for vets and for mothers. Many different ways that we can reduce costs and improve the society that we're in by being wise and how we use our courts. So Melissa, I want to thank you for your role in nurturing this and making it possible in the future. I wish you all the best for getting the funding so we can make this difference in people's lives and in the difference of our community. Thanks for joining me for Spirit and Action. Thank you, Mark. Again, Melissa Ives, Eau Claire treatment courts supervisor was the first of two guests today for Spirit and Action. This is Spirit and Action, a Northern Spirit radio production on the web at nordinspiritradio.org. With nine plus years of programs available for free listening and download, plus links to and info about our guests. There are comments on the site and find a button for you to add your own. We love to a communication. There's also a donate button. Click on it to support this full-time world healing work and especially remember to support your local community radio station. Doing invaluable community building work and bringing you a slice of news and music that you get nowhere else on the American broadcast scape. Start by supporting your community radio station with your hands and with your wallet. The topic today and also next week is treatment courts. A wise and powerful alternative to prison as punishment. We'll now go to the phones to speak to Rachel Stromack, one of the women going through AIM court. Alternatives to Incarcerating Mothers. Rachel, I'm so thankful that you chose to join me today for Spirit and Action. Hi, it's nice to be here. It's especially moving to me that people like you who have gone through the court system are willing to share their stories. It must feel kind of vulnerable. Is it easy for you to step forward and say, well, here's my story. Here's what I went through in court and just let people see you kind of naked in the truth of what you went through. Well, I think before I entered AIM court, it was hard to explain my story because it was still the excuses for me, you know, and I was still in that place. But now that I've gone through court and so much has changed, not only am I proud of it, but it makes my story come around full circle where now I can tell other girls. Now it's a good thing in my life, you know, like maybe this is my purpose, just to help other girls in my situation to pivot a point in my life and I'm extremely proud of it. You know, who wouldn't be? Could you give me a little bit of your background? What got you to the point where you actually were facing a lot of judgments against you and that you got to the AIM court? The AIM court, and we'll explain what that is shortly. How did you get there as a youth? Well, as a child, I was a product of a very dysfunctional home that had a lot of mental health problems. My mom had borderline personality disorder. My father had tendencies towards anti-social. He was also very depressed and an alcoholic. You and my dad were really close, like really extremely close and that made it hard with my relationship with my mom. He was actually my dad cheated on my mom and then they went to counseling. He convinced the counselor that he was grooming and right about that time I was going to puberty and that scared him so much he dropped me and so the timing was perfect. The most vulnerable and the worst thing that could have ever happened to me happened. You know, my most vulnerable stage already. After that, I was putting a foster care, a treatment foster home. My foster parents were like in the 60s, they were Catholic. They were very cold. I was like the 72nd foster kid that they had. So, I didn't get that love. I guess the only love that I really got was from my dad and a lot of that was because I was just like him. I was even a very evil-tistic kind of love, very arrogant and I had to prove it to him. So, love was pretty hard for me and then I was searching for it and when I was 15, I ended up pregnant with a 21-year-old. He was 21, so my parents signed me a late marriage when I was 16 and then I was on my own. And I had my son. He was really abusive. It was where I actually had to get a similar. But, you know, he's not a bad guy. He just has any new problems and we all got problems. Not to defend him. I'm not sick and like, I said it good. Not that it would be pathetic, but I'm not a victim in that way. Anyway, so from that point I was on my own and no one ever explained to me that I had to switch my marriage certificate with my Social Security card. Really no one ever taught me anything. It's kind of dry. I didn't know how to even make doctors appointments and go to them. I literally didn't know how to do anything and the thought of doing it made me feel so anxious that I couldn't do it. I couldn't really get assistance. I couldn't get a job. I couldn't get any of those things because I didn't have an ID. And again, I didn't need a Social Security card. I needed a Social Security card, you know, so it was just 22. So I was pretty much just completely dependent on men who were not healthy. I never had any good example of what a healthy relationship would look like. I had no business even saying hi to people. I don't like moving in with my child. So that was a really hard time, especially considering the hormones that were going through my body. You know, the stress of having a one-year-old, a two-year-old. It was innocent during this whole thing. And not having any help from my parents. They wouldn't let me come to their house. And because I stole them, and I was definitely escaped, but I'm not going to sit and place blame on everything. Like, I was not a good little girl, but any means. And so it's still her pills, and I would steal her things. You know, she was a hoarder at this point. And so she wouldn't let me come to the house. But sometimes she wouldn't let me sleep on the porch. I don't know. It was just a really hard time. And eventually I started dancing because it was the only thing I could do. And when you're in desperate situations like that, you have to compromise your morals and values in order to survive. At that point, I really honestly did not have any other options. I really honestly tried to go through every possible thing I could have. But when you have to compromise your morals and your values, you get shame. And shame is a very painful, dangerous place to be. I couldn't go up there sober. Obviously so. And I wasn't 21 yet, so I started using opiates, and it got really bad. I became a very bad drug addict, eventually an IV user. Drinking and driving all the time, moving town to town to town, which that was like my whole life, just moving place to place to place. Never having any real friendships. Never having any real substance of a relationship with anybody. So then I started going to the Methadone clinic after two years of dancing. And from that point, I mean, it got better. Methadone is a good band-aid. But long-term, it's really bad. Like I got super depressed. I gained a lot of weight. All I could do is sleep. You just sleep all the time. And no motivation due to anything. Isaiah was late for school. There's plenty of other than kindergarten. Isaiah was at least 15 minutes late to school every day because I could not get up. I couldn't get up. It would be time to go get him. My alarm would go off and I would have to sleep. I couldn't turn it back on. The house was just getting a mess because I had no motivation. And the walls were closing around me. I was already like genetically inclined, I guess, to have the person. And so mixed with all these drugs and the situation, psychologically, I was not in a good place. So then, you know, by that time, I started using Adderall because Adderall got me up. You know, I had motivation to do things. I felt good. My house was getting clean. I was losing weight. Just felt like the answers to everything. And then on my 23rd birthday, I did a mess for the first time. And I -- my line, I viewed it. And I want to say, they are two days later. And that just killed me. He was the only thing I ever really had. Granted, I wasn't the best mom. And I made lots of mistakes. But I did. That doesn't make me a bad mom. Like, I will admit to everything. That does not mean I don't love my son. I just didn't know how to. So, it just killed me, you know, and all the shame. Like, imagine this walking in the DHS, all the shame just walking into the building, going up to that second floor. Just let everyone walk in there, considering everything else and you're conscious. I mean, it was just a bad place. So, I kept using because meth made me not feel it. But meth was also the reason why I was in the situation. Or did I do, you know, I kept using. And then I showed up one day, I was working in Wisconsin Rapid. I showed up like two or three months later after it happened at DHS. Like, okay, I messed up. You know, I want to see my son. What do I do? I told me to go to treatment. And I went to treatment and I tried to stay sober. But I couldn't stay sober. I made it like, I think, a month and then I started using again. And I was in that point. All that's rough. You know, I had no faith in myself. I believed every lie that I was ever told or since I was a little bit of that. I was a bad person. Isaiah would be better off without me. Not even God loved me. My own parents didn't love me. There was obviously a reason, you know. And then I did that. And so I hung out with some really dangerous people. And I seen some really bad things. And it scared me, you know, it really scared me. I seen the devil. So it made me believe in God, you know, like I really seen bad things. And then I got 13 charges with him for a long period. I got 13 charges in 2013 by June. Six months. And then I ended up in jail a couple of times getting in and out. And then eventually I got into inquiry. And the inquiry came out. You know, it's kind of my story. Tell us what AIM court is. AIM court. Just tell us what it is. Because most people in the state and in the nation don't have this. No, AIM court is alternative to incarcerating mothers. It's also a human gender specific treatment court in the entire country. They've really taken the time to get to know women. Usually treatment has been aimed towards men. They know a lot about men. And women has kind of been like a second true to them. But now they're really taking the time to get to know women, get to know what makes them tick. You know, trauma has been a huge part of it. So they develop one of the most advanced trauma treatments in, like, pretty much the country too. They're not the best, but they're really high up there. And they've been very important to the success with AIM court. I want to check out a few of the details coming up before you're 23. Before you, you were able to enter into AIM court. One question is, in your mid-teens, you're already having a number of troubles. You're doing different drugs. Are you still going to school? How is that side of your life playing out? I was fluent a lot in school, but I was also very book smart. So I really didn't go, but when I graduated two years earlier, I got my HSCD. I just went in there two or three days and got it. So if that really wasn't a problem, but what I truly, yes, that's how I originally got into a lot of trouble. That was kind of the start of, like, smoking pot, start of the trouble. We're being short in school, sneaking over the house, smoking pot, smoking cigarettes. That was the beginning. And so what were you doing in your life at the time, your 21 and 22 and 23? Are you working? Are you living with someone? I'm dancing. I am dancing at that point. I lived with my mom for a little bit in my shield. I got my own place a couple of times and got addicted because I can see my rent. Moving from friends, houses, you know, I don't know. Honestly, I'm looking back. I don't know how I managed to even survive, you know, but you do, again. Well, actually I have sisters who went through the same rigamarole in their lives in their mid teens on up. So I actually have seen it firsthand in my family. So you reach 23 and you get accepted to AIM court. But you've already had a number of encounters with court system before. Could you describe what's different between going to the court regularly or going to the AIM court? No, definitely. Before the court, should I just treated me with protocol, you know? They didn't really care. I'm sure they were overworked. They didn't care. I was through jobs and you could tell. AIM court was different because they cared. They were the first people that actually cared about me and believed in me. They were like my parents. They really honored me. Picking up on my feet and showed me along, but I would have never listened to them. If it wasn't somebody like Marsha Shazik or even Judge Schumacher, you know, they're just such good people that we really care about us and our children and what we're going through that day. It's a very individualized program. You know, I think the court, specifically before, is like there's a set of rules. I mean, you need to follow these set of rules. It's black and white. But in AIM court, there's a lot of gray area. You know, they consider everything that's going on. Everything what's going on with you. You're acting out, well, let's figure out why you're acting out. You have addiction problems. Well, do you have mental health problems? Do let's get you diagnosed. They really look through everything. You know, they take care of a lot of relationship stuff and put a tendency stuff, which is going to be a huge issue for all my peers. I don't know. I just bottom there on the answer is just that they truly care. And that's something that I could tell the first day I walked into AIM court when I observed, I was in my orange and cut, and I walked away feeling something in my heart. They literally felt something in my heart. I know today that's hope. I don't know, a little white turned on that day, but I knew right then that it was different, and I was excited. And when you say they, are you just referring to the judge or who all is the "they" of AIM court? Marcia's the number one person. Marcia is Wonder Woman. She's running around doing everything, but then, of course, we have Judge Schumacher, who's like the father of the court. You know, you've got to go in front of him and explain yourself, and really, he gives the discipline, and he's the one that you're trying to fear and you respect. And you know, he's up there, but Marcia's very personal, and she is in court, in my opinion. She does everything. She leads to this, like, every week. She just coordinates everything. I don't know how to even explain her job. I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you more. Explain what she does. She, like, when I have a problem, like, I need to get to this town to get to this court date. She coordinates that. She is in contact with everyone all over the city. She makes things happen. She coordinates stuff like the graduation. She thinks of little things to make everything different. She loves it all individually. She's excited. I don't know. I wish I could tell you more about what she does. Is she a social worker? She originally was a counselor. Originally, she was a counselor, and then she was working for LSS, and then they started her on halftime. Originally, they really lobbied. This was at a time when treatment courts, they weren't getting a lot of funding. In fact, they were losing funding. But in court was doing so well. They lobbied and lobbied. The DHS was willing to give that money to the treatment courts, and the next year, they lobbied again. Got her full time. And the next year, again, she became a full employment of her in court. She's a very, very important role. So when you went to court before you had penalties, or you have to go into treatment, so what did AIM court require you to do? I had all kinds of requirements. I have to say so, where I have to do at least three ways a week. I have to go to at least three meetings a week. I have to at least have a job or go to school. You're just constantly moving forward with your life. If you're late for a meeting or a counseling appointment, you get sanctioned. You have to do like four hours of community service. If taking this like two UAs in a week, well then you can go to jail for a day. Wait, you said UAs? What's a UA? You're in an analysis, a drug test? UAs, okay. I've never had a UA. I've had tons of them. Like every day it feels like a normal part of my day. I'm glad your system is still working, that you can produce that much urine. [laughter] So there are penalties if you don't do things, and are there rewards if you do things well? Oh yeah, they found research shows that when you award someone for doing something well, it is far more effective than punishing someone when they do something bad. So yeah, we get rewarded constantly. We get these little incentive cards every week, and we put them in a fish bowl every Tuesday morning, and then they get a drawing, and we get cool stuff like chamber bucks, which is like, same thing as cash. So we'll get cash, or we'll get tickets for the children's museum, or all kinds of local stores and whatnot. They pitch into, I don't know, prizes, and I don't know. Yeah, they're just crazy, which shows good. Tell you how great you're doing here. You know, wow, I've really seen you change, and it's motivating. They keep you motivated. I assume one of the important things about the AIM court, the alternatives to incarcerating mothers is that you get to maintain some kind of relationship with your child, your children. Yes, yes, that is obviously the main focus of AIM court. Most of us have chips cases. Children and protective services have gotten involved, now you have to jump through all these hoops, then you have a certain amount of time to do this, or your child will be taken away from you. And so you go through LSF, and you go visit your child either at their office, and there's different phases with that tool, you know, and then the first phase is where social workers with you all the time in an office. When you're doing good enough, you know, then you move to second phases where you can go out into the community with the social worker. The third step is where your monitor. They will give you your child wherever, and they'll just kind of pop in and out. The fourth step is overnight, although I'm pretty much still popping like once, that's where I'm at right now. My son, I get him all weekend, and then on Wednesdays, and I see my social worker like once a week, and then after that, they close up the case. So it was over a year ago that you got introduced to the AIM court. How long have you been sober straight on the good path? I assume you still slept up once in a while. So I do, of course, I'm a addict, you know, but I'm very honest with them, and if you're honest with this program, you will see vast changes. I've realized, I think, like four times, I usually do four months, and then I realized, you know, I still sabotage. I'm destructible, but we know that now, and now we can plan ahead, and every time I fall, I pick myself up with more knowledge, and now I'm a smarter addict for it, you know, and I have a better plan ahead of me. And I always have fallen, and I always will fall, but that just makes me a smarter person, I think. Clearly, you really appreciate what AIM court has done for you. Are there a lot of people you see out there who are not getting the services of something like AIM court and who need it? Oh, yeah. I mean, all my peers that I used to know from the streets, it's like you guys think of it as a sociology point of view. You know, you're kind of growing up in this world, where if you're not getting the attention you need, you have narcissistic parents, you're, I don't know, your values and your things are different. Just rap music today. I could get into this, but I think everyone knows what I'm talking about, where this is just normal. These behaviors are normal to smoke weed and be loud and disrespectful to the elders, and you make fun of people who go to church and do the right thing. That's normal, so when you go into the system and stuff, that is just a part of life. It doesn't have to be like that, you know, we're just raising generation after generation to get worse and worse. Not everyone is lucky to get strict parents. Most of my peers have not. So, yes, I know hundreds and hundreds of people that could really benefit from this approach. Well, it sounds like it's made a world of difference to you, and I think, therefore, to your son, I say, it makes a difference to so many people around you. Can you actually, as a participant of AIM court, can you point to the court or point people to the court so that they connect up? Oh, yes, yes, definitely. But, I mean, there's only so many spots open. The problem is, is we don't have the funding to get more people involved. We now have to, like, we're keeping three spots, we're taking away three spots because we don't know what's going to happen with this Eau Claire County budget thing. The problem is, we need funding. There's only, like, 20 spots at a time. The amazing thing is, it's so much cheaper to do it this way than to put you in jail, and yet society so often chooses to throw you in jail, which hurts the future generations. Whereas, right now, Isaiah has a bright future ahead of him because he's got a mother and a father. Oh, yeah, and I mean, his teachers benefit. The whole community benefits. I mean, cash prices go down. The community is safe, trust me. Like, I've been on the streets. The community is safer when you fix this problem. If you put them in jail, they're just going to go right back out again and start in criminal. And the thing is, is that we're all people. We all have love inside of us. We just need someone to pick us up and show us how to express it. We're all just products of our own environment, and we can't really blame someone for who grew up in a different one than yours. You can't judge them for that. All you can do is hope for the best, and what this program gives us hope. I'm also wondering about your personal future, Rachel. I think before you said, maybe you made some money by dancing. You sound like an extremely intelligent, solid thinking person. I wonder if you're doing more education or finding a job or a profession that's going to suit you's more of your talents. I do both. I'm in the liberal arts program at CBTC, and I'm also working at JBC Marketing. I'm a busy girl. Yeah. But it's a good thing. I feel great. I'm going to protect the number of society, and I'm just excited for what doors are going to open in the future. I really love what input does, and I really hope to help someday. I meant to ask you a little bit. You said you had a spiritual realization that God's there, that God cares maybe. Could you talk a little bit about what you had growing up? You mentioned your foster parents were Catholic at one point. What nurtured you or what did you learn along the way? Well, my parents were extremely, extremely Christian. When I said that my dad had this affair, and I was getting puberty, at the same time we were getting to keep on the church. So this is a very vulnerable time. But we went to church for at least three days a week. My mom was a youth leader. I was a worship leader when I was like nine years old. We were non-denominational. He was a type of people, speaking tongues and stuff like it. It was a very small church, but it was my home. And the cool thing is, is when I first got out of jail and I told her after joining in court, I opened this book. I was dancing at Bolton's refuge house, and this book, it was power the prank parent, and I opened up the book. And inside that book was a list of, from my pastor's wife, and it was all of our names in our prayer requests from this church that was in independence. Like over ten years ago, like with my names, my brother, sister, my friends and everything. And it on there asked for the Holy Spirit to be working through the children, and she put on there that it was. And it was just so cool to find that book. Like I know it was there because it was all the same names of all the people in our church, which was less than 20 people. It was pretty cool. But yeah, I grew up very, very Christian, and when I hit puberty, God got taken away from me, but it kind of felt like it. Did you say you got kicked out of the church? Yeah, because my mom was dead set on that we were going to go to hell unless we didn't repent, and the church didn't believe that. So obviously that's not what the Bible says, but my mom, you know, there's all these kinds of different scripts here. They can take different ways, and my mom, she was so scared. I remember her going up shaking, but she really believed us, and she was trying to fight for it, and they got upset, and we kind of got kicked out. I don't know if we really got kicked out, or what really happened. I don't know, but it felt like it. And so what's your connection with God or religion or spirit now? Much better. I feel very close with my God right now. I feel that a Holy Spirit working inside of me. I don't know. I don't have the words for it right now. I feel the Holy Spirit in me, and I see it in other people, and I feel like I'm on the right path. And of course, it has always had that feeling for me. I don't know how to explain it to you. It's like the Holy Spirit was there with me, and this was exactly where I was supposed to be, which tells me that everything I went through was exactly where I was supposed to be to. And so I can sit here and tell you my story today. I'm so thankful for your story, for the healing you're gone through, the promising future I had for you. And I really appreciate that you are willing to share this with the people listening to Spirit in action. Thank you so much, Rachel. Thank you. That ends part one of two of our look into the people and process of Eau Claire, Wisconsin's treatment courts. You may have, or at least should have, similar alternative judicial solutions in your own area. That was AIM court, soon to be graduate, Rachel Sramak. And before that, we heard from treatment court supervisor Melissa Ives. And next week, we'll be talking to two men who've seen Eau Claire's drug and mental health courts from the inside. Join us next week for part two of our treatment court special for Spirit in Action. The theme music for this program is Turning of the World, performed by Sarah Thompson. This Spirit in Action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along. And our lives will feel the echo of our healing. You
Reformatories seldom reform, and penitentiary seldom produce penitence, but groom criminals to re-offend. For certain offenders, treatment courts achieve impressive results and save lots of money, bringing bi-partisan support.