Chief Judge Janet R. Holmgren is pleased to announce that Winnebago County has been awarded a three-year $500,000 OJJDP (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) grant to create a Family Drug Court.  The Family Drug Court in Winnebago County will be the first in Illinois. 

   

“We are honored and grateful to OJJDP for recognizing Winnebago County and its success with other specialty courts such as our Therapeutic Intervention Program (TIP) mental health court and Drug Court.  Both of these specialty courts have been extremely successful in reducing recidivism and giving the offenders an increased quality of life.  We are also very grateful that OJJDP is giving the 17^th Judicial Circuit the opportunity to develop a Family Drug Court to provide a greater level of support and supervision to parents with substance abuse issues and to give wraparound services to an entire family.

Family Drug Court is created to address substance abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues and will provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents.  Family Drug Court is being created in conjunction with the Department of Children and Family Services, TASC (Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities), Youth Services Network, and Rosecrance.   The Honorable Patrick Heaslip will preside over the Family Drug Court.

Plans are underway to implement the court and the start date is set for December 7, 2009.  For questions regarding the Family Drug Court, please contact Michelle Rock, Specialty Courts Administrator at 815-319-4805.