Grants Awarded to Michigan Problem Solving Courts

Justice Noah P. Hood of the Michigan Supreme Court joins us to discuss grants awarded to Michigan Problem Solving Courts and how those courts are achieving impressive and impactful measurable success. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Talked about resources available for veterans from the West Michigan
Veterans Coalition yesterday on Veterans Day. This is West Michigan's
Morning News, Steve Kelly and Rehat Mekita. But now that
Veterans Day has come and gone, comes news from our
friends at the State Supreme Court about these problem solving
courts that are making a big difference when it comes

(00:21):
to veterans and other things. Joining us on the liveline
this morning, State Supreme Court Justice Noah P. Hood, your honor,
thank you for taking time today.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Good morning, thanks for having me, thanks for covering this.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Before we get specifically to veterans treatment, talk to us
a little bit about what a problem solving court is
for those that might not know right.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
So, problem solving court is a non traditional court setting
that's meant to address a specific need. So that includes
veterans treatment court, includes drug court, sobriety court, mental health court.
And it's different from a normal court proceeding because you'll
see different people there and it's got different goals. In
addition to having the judge, the defendant, prosecutor, and defense attorneys,

(01:05):
you also have a mental health counselor. You'll have a
probation officer, you'll have a program coordinator for Veterans Court.
You would also have veteran mentors. Usually, in my experience,
there's someone from the VA that will be participating and
other stakeholders that are laser focused on making sure we

(01:25):
can get the veteran participants the services they need so
that they don't show back up in court.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
The audience knows I'm an alcoholic in recovery and I
see first hand sobriety court successes, right, I see the
paperwork talk to us specifically about veterans treatment and the need.
We don't just need to throw people in jail, right,
we need to give them the stuff that they need.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
That's right. And first off, congressing to sobriety and Veterans
Court is it's born out of this recognition of our
duty to support those who are served in uniform right,
who have and continue to defend all of us, and
a recognition that the sacrifices they made may have resulted

(02:14):
in trauma, may have resulted in a mental health condition,
may have resulted in a substance use disorder, and those
things may in turn result in a court case. So
instead of focusing on punishment or you know, sending that
person to jail just so that they can come back
out and do the same thing again. Let's try to,

(02:34):
as the name suggests, solve the problem. Solve the problem
at its root.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
And it does when you look at the number. Yeah, right,
so you guys published the numbers as well. Unemployment drop
when they get involved with these treatment courts. Talk to
us a little bit.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
About that, right, So that's the big number for veterans.
Treatment court drop in unemployment by ninety two percent. You
see decreases in recidivism, which is a fancaly of saying
whether or not the person catches another case, whether or
not they get convicted of another crime. You see similar
statistics for the drug court and mental health court, where

(03:17):
across the board it drops in unemployment, it's increases in employment,
it's drops in new rests. And you know that has
a few different impacts. It's impacting the individual it's appearing
in court and their family, but it's also impact in
the court and the taxpayer because that's a new case
that you don't have to pay for, right, That's a

(03:39):
new crime that's never going to be committed because someone
is out gainfully employed and staying busy in something that
benefits the community instead of subtract from the community.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
It's an amazing initiative, and the State Supreme Court of
Michigan is out in front on this thing. What else
do you want people to know? I think folks that
you don't know about the numbers that we're seeing on
the other end of this thing can say we're being
soft on crime. We need a you know, pound or
fist of the table. But my gosh, when we treat

(04:09):
these people individually as human beings, it's kind of incredible
the results we can see.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
I get. The big takeaway I would say is really
two points one. It's a lean program. Right. If you
look at the court budget for fiscal year twenty twenty six,
there's one million dollars that we've given on in grants
for veterans court. Right, But that's slice pretty thin, right.
That is across eight circuit courts and twenty some odd

(04:36):
district courts, which means people are running these programs successfully
on not a ton of money. Right. A million dollars
sounds like a lot, but when you split it back
then it's really these are very well run programs that
are giving the taxpayer in the community, the biggest bang
for their buck. And let me the heart of its, right,

(04:57):
the why of it is, every time go to one
of these graduations, right. I went to Wayne County's Veterans
Court graduation in August, went to Midlands and September, and
every time there's someone that says, this program saved my life.
Right before I was on the Supreme Court, I was
on the trial court in Wayne County. I presided over
the veterans docket, and I can tell you firsthand our

(05:19):
veterans treatment coordinator out there, I know for a fact,
saved at least one of our participants lives. And that's
you know, you can't measure that in dollars and cents.
If you want to, you can, but I'm telling you
these programs are saving people's lives.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
State Supreme Court Justice Noah P. Hood, thanks for your
time this morning.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Thanks again for covering this