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Last updated on Wednesday, October 31, 2018
(BARTHOLOMEW CO.) - Bartholomew County officials hope a federal grant will provide the boost needed to start the county’s first adult drug court in the early part of next year.
The county recently received $499,423 from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance to fund the court from January 2019 through the end of 2022.
Bartholomew County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin, who would oversee the new drug court, hopes the new funding stream will help make the court reality.
Nearly half of Indiana's 92 counties either have adult drug courts or are in the planning stages for one. The special courts aim to put drug offenders into treatment and recovery programs rather than a jail cell.
Benjamin says national research over the last 20 years shows the courts have a 75-percent success rate of keeping drug offenders out of the criminal justice system for at least two years
Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers says drug-related arrests account for the majority of jail bookings he sees each day - more than half have been in jail before on drug-related charges.
Although the federal grant is a major boost, the county still needs to get approval and certification through the state for the new court. The county also needs to get funding for a new prosecutor, public defender and magistrate for the court. Benjamin hopes to secure that funding through the community's new city-county partnership geared toward substance abuse issues. That partnership, called ASAP, stands for Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress. It's possible the needed funding could come from a combination of ASAP and county dollars.
If the funding and organizational issues are all solved, Benjamin hopes to have the court up and running by late Spring of next year.
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