John Wareham/News
Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Wetzel speaks during the KSAAT Addiction Conference ARMOR Court presentation at Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Tuesday.
The presentation covered the respective roles of the moderators of the drug court, which include Judge Richard D. Wetzel; Chief Probation Officer Lisa Lyons; Deputy Chief and Alpha Omega Program Director Joshua Gutridge; ARMOR Court Supervising Officer Michael Rardon and Pretrial Supervision Officer Adam Taylor.
The hour-long seminar went over the involvement of the judge and officers who work together with other community agencies, mental health and addiction service providers and law enforcement and health care delivery system to move those with substance abuse disorder into life-saving recovery. It also helps lower jail and prison populations while keeping dangerous criminal offenders off the streets, monitor local jail conditions, manage probationers and work to reduce repeat crime in our community.
Wetzel led the discussion about the court, which became the third drug court in the county - joining the juvenile court version and the Mandated Education and Referral Into Treatment or MERIT version in municipal court with Judge John Thatcher.
The judge, as well as several of the officers who spoke, emphasized the importance of the court with regard to drug offenders and a potential path to recovery.
ARMOR Court got its certification in April of this year and is designed to make its participants accountable for actions and provide a supportive group for those who wish to make the change.
Many of the speakers talked about how an ARMOR Court participant is chosen for the program and Wetzel started by explaining that only the lower level felonies, like ones of the fourth and fifth degree, are even eligible.
“It’s a voluntary program, which means that it’s not a condition of probation. It is something that we identify a person that we think would be successful if they had a little more intensive interaction with the court personnel,” said Wetzel. “The eligibility criteria that we use are low-level felony offenders. We do not accept trafficking cases. It does not include whether it was a violent offense. So, we’re focusing on people who have addiction, related cases or co-occurring, mental health and addiction-related cases.”
“We are so grateful here in Knox County to have all the service providers that we do,” said Taylor. “We couldn’t do our job without them. As I learn more about (the ARMOR Court participants), maybe they don’t have health coverage or maybe they’re eligible for Medicaid, so maybe I will send them next door to Job and Family Services and get them set up with that. I’m getting the opportunity to get my defendant population into programing before they’re even in a generalized probation setting,” Taylor said.
