Friday, November 4, 2016

Wanted ...contd

Next, a friend of mine, Barry Pfundt, from the Center for Justice, connected us with Dr.Darin Neven of Providence Consistent Care and the Hot Spotter team of first responders and treatment providers. The coalition helped shape the eventual program tracks as we decided to focus efforts on those labeled as "frequent flyers". We devised a means to work with the medical team and make Spokane Community Court the first community court in the nation to successfully connect the nexus between incarceration, poverty, and health issues. 
The Center for Court Innovation (CCI) flew in two experts to help serve as mentors for our court. We worked through all the restrictions, HIPAA challenges, unavailability of treatment beds to put together a court that recently celebrated its three year anniversary. From the very first moment we realized the dictum, “If you didn’t measure it, it didn’t happen” we connected with Washington State University Criminology department to serve as our evaluators. The partnership we struck with Professor Jackie van Wormer later inured to our county as she was subsequently appointed as our criminal justice administrator, a position where she currently manages the MacArthur’s Safety and Justice Challenge grant.
Concluding part next month