March 23, 2001
| Members Present Justice Mary Muehlen Maring, Chair | Members Absent Judge Ralph Erickson Christopher Walker |
Staff
Marilyn Moe
The minutes of the December 15, 2000 meeting were approved.
The Grand Forks team report was given by Judge Kleven. She stated they have changed their approach and now have the juvenile present a progress report to the judge. They also have the participant and defense counsel stand at the podium. They decided there is not enough time to discuss administrative matters at the team meeting so they are now meeting once a month for a couple of hours. Northeast Central now has 15 participants; they had six graduates as of March 23, 2001. Discussion was held on the past graduates and how they are doing. Dr. Thompson will talk to Chris Walker, the local coordinator, and get the needed information to track the graduates. Further discussion was held on tracking the graduates and the juveniles from the comparison group.
Grand Forks reported they started taking DJS kids. They have two Native Americans in the program along with three Hispanics. Grand Forks has two law enforcement officers from the Grand Forks Police Department attending staffing. They are going to approach two deputies to participate in the program. They also have set a 10:00 p.m. curfew for all the participants. They have one rural youth in their program so they feel it is important to get the Sheriff's Department involved. Judge Kleven spoke at the Grand Forks County Bar Association meeting on the JDC Program. The Grand Forks County Bar Association has two volunteers who want to serve as mentors.
The Fargo team report was given by Kris Haycraft. She reported they have a total of 8 juveniles in the program. Two males graduated last Monday, for a total of three graduates. They feel things are running smoothly. They are considering the idea of meeting every other week and also need some extra time to handle administrative issues. They have had one Native American in the program. Discussion was held on aftercare for the graduates and meeting their needs.
Marilyn Moe has contacted all the tribal drug courts in the state. There is a juvenile drug court at Spirit Lake which is interested in meeting once or twice a year. Ann Wallace from Las Cruces, New Mexico, will be at Fort Peck doing a workshop in June. Dale Dreen from Fort Berthold mentioned there is a former employee from Berthold who has been trained in the drug court program and is now living in Fargo. He will contact her and see if she is interested in working with the JDC program in Fargo.
Justice Maring discussed the law enforcement involvement in Las Cruces including their physical training program. Las Cruces law enforcement has received grant monies to run these programs.
Dr. Kevin Thompson gave a report on the most recent data as of March 5th. The total number of graduates is 9 and there have been 32 participants to date. Presently, there are 15 juveniles in the program. He does not have complete data yet on the treatment status for the comparison group. Kevin has developed a school reporting form and given it to the two local coordinators to help him track the kids in terms of grades and attendance. He feels that these statistics will be an important part of our evaluation and that is where we are going to see some of the largest differences between JDC kids and the comparison kids.
Miami Conference report: Kevin Thompson, Marilyn Moe, Ann Holm, and Kris Haycraft attended the National Drug Court Professionals Conference. Kevin reported the tribal courts were operating differently than the non-tribal courts and there seemed to be a different approach and different type of climate in the courts. Kris attended sessions on getting parents involved in the program. Marilyn stated she attended team building workshops and sessions on sanctions and incentives. Melody Peterson reported on information that Ann Holmes learned from the drug screening sessions.
Las Cruces, New Mexico, report: Birch reported on the role of the prosecutor in the Las Cruces Drug Court Program. Melody stated that Dr. Whitehead, the treatment director at Las Cruces, drafted a treatment model called MRT. They are very group orientated in Las Cruces, and there was rarely an individual session and/or a family therapy piece for the parents and the kids. The kids found the involvement of the law enforcement officers most helpful in their success in the program. Rob Olson reported the Las Cruces public defender was on the state payroll. His role was more of a guardian ad litem, although he is called the public defender. Further discussion was held on their program.
Discussion was held on the use of detention in the Drug Court Program. Greg does not believe that our law allows sentencing to detention. There may be some exception with JDC, but there is nothing in the drug court that gives it more authority than juvenile court. The judge has the authority to issue a pick up and hold order for an alleged violation of probation as long as the hearing is set up and held timely. He stated that the counties are concerned about detention because of the cost. Deb Carlson asked about the possibility of getting something just for drug court. Greg stated that could cause problems with status offenders, and minor in possession is a status offense. Discussion was held on the JDC policy of the dismissal of the charges. Justice Maring stated she thought the ultimate decision on whether a charge is dismissed is the decision of the prosecutor and the judge. The manual says upon successful completion the charge will be dismissed and the juvenile can petition for the juvenile record to be dismissed after two years. If they do not complete the program, then their charges are not dismissed. Further discussion was held.
Marilyn stated Judge Cornish from Las Cruces will be in Grand Forks on April 26 and 27th and everyone would be receiving an agenda. Ann Wallace is unable to come because of other training conflicts.
Marilyn distributed a participation manual for parents. The team members are to review this manual. If changes need to be made, Marilyn is to be contacted.
The next advisory meeting has been scheduled for June 22, 2001.
Since there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned.