GFWC-IL Morris Women’s Club hosts picnic for rehab program

Children played on the nearby playground, a judge fired up the grill, and ex-convicts and court officials played bean bags together. It was a great day for a picnic.

Members of both the Grundy County Drug Court and the Grundy County Treatment Alternative Court gathered with their families and program administrators for a social picnic on the afternoon of June 18 at Chapin Park in Morris. These programs provide solutions other than incarceration for people in Grundy County who are convicted of felony charges and suffer from either drug addiction or a mental health disorder.

According to Shannon Bednarcik, administrative coordinator for Grundy Treatment Alternative Court, additions to the court must be approved by a panel consisting of the judge, prosecutor’s office, public defender’s office, program coordinator, a mental health nurse, sheriff’s department and the administrative coordinator. If accepted into the program, convicted persons spend anywhere between one and one half to four years attending therapy sessions and checking in with court officials. Members of the Drug Court are required to take frequent drug tests.

Judges Robert Marsaglia and Lance Peterson both attended the picnic on Tuesday. Marsaglia presides over the Drug Court while Peterson presides over the Treatment Alternative Court. Marsaglia said the programs are an effective way to rehabilitate members of the community.

“The programs are focused on therapy rather than punishment. We take a person with a serious case and use it as vehicle of rehabilitation,” Marsaglia said. “This helps to end the revolving door of repeat offenders.”

Peterson agreed. He said people uncomfortable with the program should research some of the evidence before forming an opinion about them.

“It’s a win-win for everyone. Studies all over the country have proven programs like these help get people back on track and it saves a lot of money. It costs about $30,000 to incarcerate a person for one year. It costs about $9,000 for that person to be in one of these programs for a year,” Peterson said.

GFWC-IL Morris Women’s Club provided the food and games for the picnic. Women’s Club began the annual event last year to help provide members of the court with an opportunity to socialize and model healthy behavior.

“We learned about the program and wanted to get involved,” said Caroline Cummings, member and past president of Morris Women’s Club. “We spoke with the staff and decided a pro-social picnic would be great.”

Marsaglia said Tuesday’s picnic was an excellent example of the type of behavior the program wants to promote.

“We want to encourage healthy fun and time with family. We want to show that you don’t need to be on drugs to live a fulfilling life,” Masaglia said.

Marsaglia also spoke about many success stories involving the Drug Court program. One of these was James Wiggins of Morris who graduated from the Drug Court in 2017. Wiggins said the program changed his life.

“It changed me as a person, it changed the way I think and stopped me from using drugs. I realized I don’t have to break the law to live my life,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins attended the picnic on Tuesday with his son. He said he wants to show other members of the Drug Court that a brighter future is possible.

“If [the program] can do it for me, it can do it for anybody,” Wiggins said.

Jeremy Goldsberry of Morris is set to graduate from Drug Court in two weeks. He said the most effective part of the program was getting to talk to four or five different court officials a week.

“This program gave me a second chance. I had nothing and now I’m making payments and I just had a baby,” Goldsberry said. “Left to my own devices I would have been back out there doing the same stuff. This gave me my life back.”

The Grundy Treatment Alternative Court is funded through the State of Illinois as part of the Adult Redeploy Illinois program. Bednarcik said she wants more people to be aware of the program.

“We’re working with people with mental health issues and that’s a privacy issue. We walk a thin line trying to raise awareness of the program while protecting their privacy,” Bednarcik said. “These people need treatment much more than they need time in jail.”