Addressing the “revolving door” of repeat offenders in Pulaski County’s justice system is one of the goals behind its veterans treatment court.
Superior Court Judge Crystal Kocher says she frequently saw the issue when she was the county’s chief deputy prosecutor, generally involving individuals with substance use disorders. “We would see them in court after an arrest,” she says. “They would enter a guilty plea. We would enter a sentencing on them, and part of that sentencing often would require that they get an evaluation and seek some sort of treatment for their addiction. Sometimes, they served 30 days in jail. And then they would get out. Oftentimes, there was a probation violation because they didn’t get that treatment or they re-offended. And so the process continued to work through that cycle.”
Judge Kocher says the veterans treatment court has led to a big reduction in its participants’ contact with the justice system, but she admits it hasn’t been perfect. “We have had people who have graduated who have re-offended, and initially we were all very distraught about it and ‘How do we fix our program? How do we look at this?’ One of the things, though, that we started to realize is, during the period of time they were in our program, some of them, three years, two years, they weren’t using. They weren’t being rearrested,” Kocher says.
Going forward, she says officials will continue looking at how to measure success. Participants, meanwhile, say the program is making an impact. “We hear all of the time, ‘This program, your staff, you saved my life,’” Kocher says.
You can hear our conversation with Judge Kocher and veterans treatment court coordinator Dr. Natalie Tucker, this Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EDT/noon CDT on Kankakee Valley Viewpoints on K99.3.
