Your Nebraska Judicial Branch

Episode 11: Problem-Solving Courts with Adam Jorgensen

May 20, 2021 Nebraska Judicial Branch Episode 11
Your Nebraska Judicial Branch
Episode 11: Problem-Solving Courts with Adam Jorgensen
Show Notes Transcript

We are joined by Nebraska's Statewide Problem-Solving Courts Director Adam Jorgensen to discuss the unique role these courts play in reducing recidivism, and increasing positive outcomes.

Speaker 1:

Welcome. And thanks for listening. This is your Nebraska judicial break

Speaker 2:

Greetings, and thank you again for joining us. I am Jeanne Cotter. Your host may is national drug court month. Today we are joined by Nebraska's director of statewide problem solving courts, Adam Jorgensen. Adam, thank you for joining us. Good morning, Jean. Thanks for having me, Adam. Let's just jump right in. I think that when people think about problem solving courts, I'm not necessarily sure that they understand exactly what that means. If you talk about a drug court, if you talk about a young adult court, maybe that comes up with a different definition in people's minds, but when they hear the general term problem-solving court, I'm not sure they understand what all that encompasses. Could you tell us a little bit about what exactly a problem solving court is and what that means? So in the state of Nebraska, I problem solving court is a term that we use for any type of court that uses a multidisciplinary team approach, intense judicial oversight, frequent meetings with participants Nebraska's problem-solving courts consists of adult drug and DUI courts, family drug, treatment courts, juvenile drug, treatment courts, mental health courts, reentry courts, veterans, treatment courts, and young adult courts. When you say an interdisciplinary team, I assume that is something different based on all those different types of courts that you just described. Talk a little bit about what the interdisciplinary team means. The problem-solving court team core is very consistent throughout the state teams have representation from the county attorney, a legal representative or public defender. We would have a treatment provider. We would have a problem solving court coordinator for our probation based courts. We often have the problem solving court supervision officer, as well as the chief probation officer. We would have a treatment provider representative, and also we have law enforcement representatives that are part of our problem solving court team. As you get a little bit more specific into different problem solving court types, the team may look a little different for our veterans treatment court. We have a unique collaboration with the veteran mentor, and we also have a unique collaboration with the VA for our mental health courts. We would obviously have mental health professionals on hand that are able to give us clinical and professional advice so that our participants are successful. And when you talk about treatment providers, what exactly is treatment in that context? Because I know there's substance use treatment. There's also domestic violence programming. You talked about mental health professionals, but when you talk about a treatment provider, how would that potentially vary from court to court, from court to court? It would vary. Um, you know, we often find individuals

Speaker 3:

And all across all of our court types who may have substance use or mental health needs. And so behavioral health treatment providers are a key part to all of our programs, problem solving courts, assess each individual and design an individualized treatment plan. So if an individual would need behavioral health treatment, we would be able to get that for them. If they would need employment services, we'd be able to get that if they would need domestic violence services, we would be able to get that for them as well.

Speaker 2:

Something else you talked about when you were describing the overarching definition of problem solving court was significant judicial oversight. What does significant judicial oversight mean? And how does that look different? When you look at other types of probation or parole or those types of community corrections sentences.

Speaker 3:

So based on our best practice standards, individuals in early phases of the program appear in front of a judge every two weeks often they're appearing in front of a judge weekly towards the latter end of their program. They may appear monthly in front of the judge, but that appearance in front of the judges extremely powerful. And it's not only appearance in front of the judge. The judge is involved in the staffing of the cases, the teams get together weekly and talk about the progress of the individual what's going well, what's not going well. That's where we'll talk about maybe possibly incentivizing the behaviors that we want sanctioning to behaviors that are, that are not so desired. After that staffing belt appear in the court setting in front of the judge, outcomes are better for participants when they spend at least three to seven minutes with the judge. And oftentimes our judges are spending more time with them. And when you talk to participants about what was impactful and what was powerful about problem solving courts, a lot of them will tell you having a district court judge or having a judge tell me that I did a good job or that I could do this and that they were proud of me. It was very impactful in, in behavior change.

Speaker 2:

Adam, I noticed that you were very intentional about using the word participant there. And one thing that really stood out to me over your last several answers was there's the old adage of it takes a village. It sounds like this is a village effort, judges and prosecutors and police officers and treatment providers and probation officers, and the participant themselves, is that an accurate assessment of what a problem-solving court looks like?

Speaker 3:

That's accurate gene. And it even goes further than that. I mean, we have community support workers that are working with individuals. We have their family members who are engaged. One of the things that probation does a great job of is doing those home visits and checking in with the natural supports in their natural living environment and ensuring that those supports are in place. So whether it's checking with employers and the support that we get from employers, because an employer does have to be supported for a participant to complete this intensive program.

Speaker 2:

Talk a little bit about employers and schools and those types of things, because I think that a lot of people have this vision in their head that, oh, well, I'm not going to be able to work cause I'm going to be involved in this intensive program where I have all these requirements of me is the experience for employers and school more positive than that. In other words, it gives any better employee potentially.

Speaker 3:

I mean, obviously treatment is the focus of our, of our courts. And if once a participant has completed treatment and is doing well, employment and educational and betterment becomes priority for us, several of our courts have educational employment requirements. As part of graduation, all of our participants are working full time or working towards academic improvements, whether it's getting their GED, going back to college, doing those kinds of things. The goal really is to ensure that we're building lifelong behavior change and education and employment are high on that priority. As far as are you getting a better employee employers know that they have an open line of communication with our supervision officers. Um, they are people that we check with on a regular basis and players also know that the individual is being drug tested and supervised on a regular basis. And so that is something that should be comforting to the employer to know, and that they're going to be held accountable and that they're not coming to work. And those types of things will be noticed and action will be taken.

Speaker 2:

And then something else that really stood out to me here was kind of a concept around accountability. When you talk about, you have to work, you have to go to treatment that also provides an opportunity for people to kind of pay their own way. So to say it, doesn't it. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. There is a high level of investment in their recovery and their program and what they're doing, the accountability piece is there, but if they are accountable to the program, if they complete the requirements that they need to complete in our problem solving court models, their charges dismissed. And so there is a high level of accountability there, but there is also a high reward at the end.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. That sounds fantastic. How do I get involved in a problem solving court? You know, I know that it starts with unfortunately having to be arrested or being on the wrong side of the law, but are there problem-solving courts across the state? Yeah,

Speaker 3:

We actually have problem solving courts in all 12 judicial districts in the state of Nebraska. Earlier. I talked about the problem solving court models that we have problem solving courts in Nebraska operate out of the district court. So they're for felony convictions, um, an individual who receives a felony charge, but they would go through a screening process to ensure that they, uh, meet the criteria for the problem solving court pawn, successful completion of the screening process. They would then be entered into the problem solving court. Uh, they would enter a guilty plea to the charge with sentence being deferred upon successful completion of the problem solving courts. They're allowed to withdraw that guilty plea and the state dismisses the charges. If for some reason they would not be successful in the problem solving court program or would decide to voluntarily withdraw because it is a voluntary program. They have already pled guilty and then they would go into the sentencing phase of the court process.

Speaker 2:

If I'm sitting out someplace in Nebraska right now that does not have a problem-solving court. I know we have them in all 12 judicial districts, but if I don't have one in my county, can I just go start one? Can I go down to the courthouse, knock on the door and start advocating for that? Or is there some sort of a process to get a problem solving court in my area?

Speaker 3:

So there is a process to start a problem solving court, all problem solving courts operate under the direction of the Nebraska Supreme court. Any party interested in starting a new problem solving court must get permission through the Supreme court. There is a Supreme court rule that outlines what an individual would have to do or a group would have to do to get a problem. Solving court started as simply starts with a letter of intention to the state court administrator that starts the process. And then we just kind of go through and look at resources, uh, assessed needs kinda things like are there best practice standards in place? And throughout that process, then you work with me, the statewide problem solving court director. Ultimately if everything works it application is then submitted to the Supreme court for approval.

Speaker 2:

So obviously this is very beneficial to the individual involved. It also seems very beneficial to the communities. Just finish up if you would, by talking about exactly that the benefits to the communities that have problem solving courts in them, what does it do for community safety? For example?

Speaker 3:

Well, as far as community safety, it allows individuals to be in the community and they're super they're being supervised. The problem solving court naturally build supports in the community recovery supports, if you will. Um, in the area that I used to be the coordinator for because of the need, uh, they're developed several treatment facilities. They're developed a lot of online supports meetings, support meetings, a real collection of support services in the community to help not only individuals in problem solving court and everybody else who is suffering from similar troubles, other benefits to the community, it, it allows an individual to be in the community, but still be supervised. So it allows them to be a productive worker, a productive student. It allows them to be good parents, good family members. They're allowed to do the things that they are going to have to do to be successful in the rest of their life while going through supervision and learning to behavior change skills that probation teaches them

Speaker 2:

From a research perspective as well, research shows that individuals that receive supervision in a community, having a better chance of success when they've been in trouble with the law helps bring down the reasons that that landed him in court to begin with. Do you have any statistics, the success

Speaker 3:

Of problem solving courts in Nebraska, Nebraska problem solving courts for our adult problem solving courts, we are currently have a recidivism recidivism rate of 21.9%. And that what that recidivism rate means is three years post successful completion. 21.9% of our individuals have recidivated, uh, that, that is very in line with the national average. And I will also add that Nebraska's recidivism number is three years nationally. They look at two years, so we have an additional year of an individual doing what they need to do in order to stay arrest free. Adam, I think that it might help to clarify just a little bit there too. We're not just talking about first-time offenders that come into the court. We're talking about individuals problem-solving courts anymore are kind of designed as prison or jail reduction programs. So these are individuals that come in fairly risky and with fairly high amounts of needs. So the fact that four out of five, three years out have not been rearrested or convicted for something as a pretty significant stat to look at, right? Yeah. That's, that's absolutely correct. Gene. We are targeting high-risk and high-need individuals. And when I say high risk, I, I do not mean high risk as a community safety. We're talking about high risk to re-offend and how you treatment needs. And so these are the individuals that research would show are the most likely to re-offend and continue to be rearrested without some form of behavioral health intervention. And so that's why the problem solving courts are so successful for this type of individual, because there's a lot of supervision. There's a lot of accountability. There's a lot of community-based resources and it's very intensive, but a lot of thanks to the Nebraska Supreme court with a lot of encouragement support from the Nebraska legislature, problem-solving courts have grown exponentially over the last several years in Nebraska. It seems that there is very good reason to celebrate problem-solving courts in Nebraska in may, if not every month at Jorgensen statewide problem solving court director. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Speaker 1:

This has been another episode of your Nebraska judicial branch. Please remember to subscribe and review us on your favorite podcast platform.