By Jon King, Michigan Advance
A package of bipartisan bills that would expand Michigan’s problem solving courts is heading to a vote in the Senate.
The bills, which won bipartisan House passage in October, were passed out of the Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Thursday. They would expand the availability of the specialty courts, both by offering access to individuals involved in civil disputes as well as criminal defendants currently prevented from participating.
The courts, officially referred to as problem-solving courts (PSCs), provide alternatives to imprisonment for nonviolent criminal offenders with substance use disorders and/or mental illnesses. According to the Michigan Courts website, there are 209 such courts across the state using a “specialized therapeutic jurisprudence model designed to treat the underlying cause of the criminal behavior and thus reduce future reoffending, or recidivism.” Currently, there are five different types of PSCs: adult and juvenile drug courts, adult and juvenile mental health courts and veterans treatment courts.
The first bill in the package, HB 4522, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi), would open up the PSC model to those involved in civil court proceedings.
“They will target civil child abuse or neglect cases and are to be addressed in the Family Division of circuit courts, which are very different from the criminal process,” Breen told the committee earlier this month. “These civil cases in which children are involved, target parents who have a substance abuse issue. Separating families that can otherwise be helped is heartbreaking and can have serious long lasting ramifications. Family treatment courts will embrace a team of people focused on providing a safe and nurturing and permanent home for children, while simultaneously providing parents the necessary support and services they need to achieve drug and alcohol abstinence.”
The other three bills in the package, HB 4523, sponsored by Rep Kara Hope (D-Holt), HB 4524, sponsored by Rep. Joey Andrews (D-St. Joseph), and HB 4525, sponsored by Rep. Graham Filler (R-DeWitt), would amend the Revised Judicature Act (RJA) to allow certain violent offenders, currently barred from the programs, to participate if the judge and prosecuting attorney, in consultation with any known victim, were to approve.
“These deal with us trying to fix a problem,” said Filler. “Currently there is a complete prohibition on anyone who has committed a violent crime from being enrolled into a specialty or treatment court, and in testimony in the House, the Michigan Association of Treatment Court professionals said that they expect this instance to be quite rare. But there are situations where everyone is in agreement that the individual who committed the crime should be allowed to access the programming, and I think that we did find agreement that this is a common sense change that could be easily managed by judges and prosecutors.”
Filler specified the bills would still completely bar anyone from participating convicted of first degree murder or first, second or third degree criminal sexual conduct..
At Thursday’s hearing, state Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) said while he was supportive of the specialty courts, and understood they do a “fabulous job,” he felt the bills needed further refinements and put forward several amendments. One would have added torture, first degree sexual abuse, second degree child abuse, kidnapping and treason to the list of crimes making someone ineligible, while another sought to add to the definition of a violent offender those who attempted to commit a violent act.
“For instance, a person should not be considered a non-violent offender just because they’re a bad shot,” he said. “The change simply says, ‘A violent offender also includes individuals who attempt to cause death, serious bodily injury or commit criminal sexual conduct in any degree.”
Breen told the committee those were not issues that were relevant to the legislation.
“I will say to at least one of Sen. Runestad’s big concerns about individuals who have been charged with certain crimes having the possibility of instead being referred to family treatment court. … People who have been charged with kidnapping or terrorism, they are not going to treatment court; they are going to prison. So they will not be able to have that opportunity,” she said.
Kate Hude, executive director of the Michigan Association of Treatment Court Professionals, also addressed Runestad’s concerns.
“I just want to reiterate that these are civil NA [child protective] cases. They will never be anything else,” she said. “Any discussion about criminal matters generally has to do with admittance into one of the family treatment court programs. But, as you heard a couple weeks ago, they have to operate under the drug treatment court statute, which is criminal in nature. So we really just need to provide family treatment courts their own bill that reflects them being civil in nature.”
None of Runestad’s amendments were approved by the Democratic majority on the committee, which passed them on to the full Senate for consideration.
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