The 45th Circuit Court of St. Joseph County has been awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of Justice. St. Joseph County Circuit Court Adult Drug Treatment Court Program Director Dr. Barbara Howes confirmed the award at a meeting Wednesday. In a Facebook post, Circuit Court Judge Paul Stutesman said, “I am extremely proud to announce that the 45th Circuit Court has been awarded a new grant from the Federal Government in the amount of $600,000 over the next three years to address the substance abuse needs in our County.”
The program under which the grant is awarded is called the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP), and was created by the U.S. Congress as part of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act in 2016. It is administered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which considers the addiction to be “a public health emergency” according to DOJ grant materials supplied by Howes. “Responding to this health emergency is one of DOJ’s top priorities.”
Stutesman announced the award after receiving correspondence from Principal Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General Katherine T. Sullivan. “On behalf of Attorney General (William) Barr, it is my pleasure to inform you that the Office of Justice Programs has approved the application submitted by County of St. Joseph,” Sullivan wrote. “Congratulations, and we look forward to working with you.”
Howes said the grant award and the programs it will cover are rooted in “the needs of our local communities as well as the collective competencies and capabilities of community leaders. It is individualized to meet the unique needs and to build on the strengths specific to rural communities.”
The grant will help St. Joseph County to be better equipped to deal with substance abuse and other issues she sees in working with the court. “This grant affords us the ability to take steps in our own communities to respond to not only the person suffering from the brain disease of addiction, but also to respond to their families, neighbors, and their employers,” Howes said. “It provides an opportunity to offer support and resources to first, second, and third responders to substance related calls.”
Grant monies will be allocated to a number of different court programs. Precise amounts awarded to each program are still being determined, Stutesman said. Planning for the projects and initiatives that will receive the funds, as well as the grant application process itself, has taken many months.
In follow-up comments to Watershed Voice, Howes said, “a great deal of collaboration between agencies is critical in small, rural counties. Input was sought from the major stakeholders including Law Enforcement, Treatment providers, and the Courts who all then signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing to implementing the grant activities.”
Stutesman said some of those partners include Community Mental Health of St. Joseph County, Covered Bridge Healthcare, and the Twin County Probation Center. There are also MOUs in place with individual peer support professionals and case managers.
Part of the grant will go toward response training for the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department. The training will cover crisis identification and de-escalation techniques for substance abuse situations before they get out of hand, with the intention of reducing dependence on incarceration in favor of treatment. According to grant materials supplied by Howes, some resources under the grant will be used to address the needs of children who have been impacted by substance abuse.
Some monies will also go toward substance addiction treatment programs, as well as to overdose training and treatment programs. “Substance abuse is a public health issue that crosses all socio-economic, racial, gender, age, and religions,” Howes said. “We are all either directly or indirectly/personally or professionally impacted when someone has an addiction.”
Another program that is slated to receive some of the funds is the Swift and Sure Sanctions Probations Program (SSSPP), which is a program designed to deal with felony offenders who have a history of probation violations. SSSPP guidelines include substance testing, prompt sanctions for violations, and frequent check-ins and monitoring.
Stutesman said the monies will also go toward other probation services. He said many counties focus on punishments as a means of addressing probation violations, but St. Joseph is among a handful of counties that places greater emphasis on rehabilitation and prevention initiatives that ensure probationers have resources like secure housing away from influences that can lead to repeat offenses, as well as the aforementioned substance programs. The court works to dovetail SSSPP guidelines with its own rehabilitation strategies.
To accomplish the work that the grant will fund, Stutesman said a great deal of work will be required. “There’s no money paid to anybody other than the Program Director for running it,” he said. Significant planning and coordination work has been or will be done by the participating agency staff, and that work adds to each person’s regular duties. In the end, however, Stutesman said the funded programs “can provide a lot of help.”
Howes said some paperwork and coordination remains to be completed before work begins under the award. She said DOJ staff “are in the process of “working out the kinks” in that platform so that grantees can access funding and submit required reports. However, a stakeholders meeting will be held within the next month to begin implementing grant activities.”
Stutesman said the COSSAP grant is difficult to get and goes to a limited number of recipients. Howes provided DOJ statistics which said 110 of the grants have been awarded nationwide, only slightly more than two per state. The nationwide award total is $147 million, part of a larger, $340 million addiction crisis program.
In Michigan, three entities received awards. They included Cass and St. Joseph Counties as well as the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Each of those entities received $600,000, three-year awards.
Howes said the grant application took “a tremendous amount of work.” Even before having to coordinate the various agencies and programs in putting together a proposal, Howes said she performed considerable researching various “evidence-based programs that will be the most effective, so that you get the biggest bang for your buck.” Howes said she is pleased and excited that her work paid off.
Howes began working with the court in late 2013. She works on a contract basis. Her background is in social work, and as a Three Rivers High School graduate, she has spent most of her life in St. Joseph County. “I realized early in my career, through living in and working in a rural county, that the resources are often scarce,” Howes said. “And so, leveraging funding is an important skill so that people can get the services that they need.”
Howes said she works closely with Stutesman in carrying out her duties, which involve “comprehensively addressing the substance abuse epidemic and related problems” in the county. Her approach is to use evidence-based, proven, and demonstrably effective solutions to addiction and substance abuse, and to work “across systems and disciplines” in order to reduce crime and substance abuse recidivism.
In follow-up comments to Watershed Voice, Stutesman credited Howes with the court’s increased and successful emphasis on rehabilitation and treatment as an alternative to incarceration and punishment. In his Facebook post, Stutesman also thanked Howes for making the award possible. “I’m excited about the opportunity,” Stutesman said. “It’s quite an honor to get it.”
Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
