Lee County Drug Court wins $1 million, 3-year grant

DIXON – Since its inception in 2005, the Lee County Drug Court has helped divert more than 160 people from a jail cell to treatment and back to a healthy, productive life.

With the award of an almost $1 million, three-year grant, that effort will continue.

The Justice Department awarded the county a $997,696 Adult Treatment Court Site-Based Enhancement Grant, part of more than $4.4 billion in grants awarded nationwide to support public safety and community justice activities.

“This funding will be used to help neighbors and family members in our community break free of the chains of addiction,” Lee County State’s Attorney Charles Boonstra said in a news release announcing the funding. “It will be used to give individuals in our community a new lease on life. A second chance.

“When our drug court participants succeed, we all succeed.”

Lee County Drug Court, which was established Nov. 1, 2005, gives nonviolent offenders the opportunity to receive intensive rehabilitation services for drugs and/or alcohol abuse.

Its mission “is to lower the effects of drug-related crime and costs to the community by assessing and directing individuals with substance abuse problems into the judicial supervision of treatment with a goal of developing substance-free, productive citizens and thereby breaking the cycle of criminal recidivism,” according to the release.

It last received a Federal Drug Court Enhancement Grant in 2011.

Chief Circuit Judge Jacquelyn Ackert is Illinois’ longest-serving drug court judge. Ackert has presided over the program since 2006 and over every graduate who has completed the program.

“The Lee County Drug Court program is excited and grateful to once again be awarded grant funds to help it attain successful outcomes for the participants and benefit the community through reductions in crime and cost-savings to the community,” Ackert said in the release. “We look forward to utilizing these funds to assist our participants in obtaining the resources they need to successfully complete our program and live healthy, sober lives.”

State Rep. Brad Fritts, R-Dixon, wrote a letter of support for the grant, while Sara Leisner, victim witness coordinator and state’s attorney’s office manager, spearheaded the effort, according to the release.