(Spirit Lake)– A new avenue for treating drug addicts may soon be available in Dickinson county. It would be made possible, in large part, through funding the county will be receiving as part of a settlement in a federal opioid lawsuit. The Board of Supervisors today (Tues.) heard from District Judge John Sandy who’s proposing the establishment of an adult drug treatment court. He says a similar program is being considered for Clay County. Judge Sandy adds he’s received approval for the program from the Chief Judge of District 3…
“Interventions include early, continuous, and intensive judicially supervised treatment; mandatory periodic drug and alcohol testing; community supervision; and the use of appropriate sanctions and incentives and local delivery of habilitation and mental health services.”
He says the request also needs to go before the Department of Corrections Services for funding approval…
“They essentially will hire a new probation agent where there caseload will be solely focused on folks out of Dickinson county and Clay county that are participating in the drug court program. Based on the data that we analyzed, Steve and I, last week with the Department of Corrections, they estimate anywhere from 10 to 15 individuals out of Dickinson county alone will be in the program, in addition to 10 to 15 individuals out of Clay county, so about 30, 25 to 30 cases. And that one agent, then, will supervise those 25 to 30 individuals that are in the program.”
Judge Sandy says the ultimate goal is to help addicts recover and become productive citizens…
“Whether they’re incarcerated or not, they’re coming back into the community. And so the community should have an ownership interest in ensuring that mental health and substance use issues in the community are being adequately addressed. And that buy in is important to also reducing the recidivism rate and lowering the costs of incarceration. And so for all those reasons we, it works. I mean we wouldn’t be doing this if the national data didn’t suggest that this is a tremendously powerful tool. Especially in rural Iowa. I think it’s a big deal.”
Judge Sandy added he plans to seek final approval from the Board of Supervisors in the fall. Such a program currently does not exist in this area of northwest Iowa.
