Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: State's Attorney Charlie Boonstra talks Drug Court

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Talk Line: State's Attorney Charlie Boonstra talks Drug Court · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, SoC Valley. You've joined the Waking crew here
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  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five to one and AM fourteen sixty WIXN.
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  Speaker 1: It's eight thirty seven and it's time for more talk line.
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  Speaker 1: I'm joined today in the booth for my first time
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  Speaker 1: since taking the helm here in the legendary Steve Marco Studio.
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  Speaker 1: State's Attorney Charlie Boonster. Charlie, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm good. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: I'm very well. As I said, I'm drying the booth
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  Speaker 1: when you came in a little bit there. Yeah, all week,
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  Speaker 1: all week.
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  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 1: You came in to talk about something we were talking
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  Speaker 1: about off there because it was new for me. But
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  Speaker 1: I'm already loving what I'm hearing about. This is drug Court.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So drug Court in Socc Valley, specifically in Lee County,
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  Speaker 2: we've had for over twenty years now and it's a
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  Speaker 2: really neat program for individuals that are dealing with substance
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  Speaker 2: abuse and they go through this program. Once they're in
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  Speaker 2: the criminal justice system, they can elect to try to
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  Speaker 2: be into drug Court and try to apply into it
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  Speaker 2: and once they're accepted by the team teams made up
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  Speaker 2: of judges, public defenders office, my Office Law Enforcement Treatment
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  Speaker 2: Providers court services. Once that team goes through and looks
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  Speaker 2: to see if they're a good fit for drug court.
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  Speaker 2: They have high risk, high needs, and I think they'll
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  Speaker 2: do well in the program that they'll be suceptible to
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  Speaker 2: actually letting the team help them. Then they go through there,
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  Speaker 2: and the hope is, you know, give them the tools
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  Speaker 2: that they need to go on beyond the program once
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  Speaker 2: they graduate. And then if they are successful in the program,
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  Speaker 2: and a lot of them are, then the case against
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  Speaker 2: them gets dismissed. And there's a big positive to that too,
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  Speaker 2: not just in that you know, cases closed and we've
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  Speaker 2: helped somebody, but now we're getting somebody that can be
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  Speaker 2: productive in society. We're getting somebody that's going to be
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  Speaker 2: a taxpayer, that's going to help with our infrastructure here
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  Speaker 2: and can actually you know, pay it forward to somebody
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  Speaker 2: else too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Because I mean, what led them to that arrest
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  Speaker 1: in the first place is something that isn't solved just
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  Speaker 1: by being put into jail, right, Yeah, so it still
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  Speaker 1: exists when they get out if nothing changes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the recidivism issue is a real problem that we'd have.
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  Speaker 2: So the easiest thing that we could do as a
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  Speaker 2: court system is just say not my problem, and then
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  Speaker 2: just put them in prison, put them in jail, put
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  Speaker 2: them on probation, and just ignore the issue, and then
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  Speaker 2: here we are right back at it again in a
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  Speaker 2: couple of years or maybe even sooner. So we look
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  Speaker 2: at this program as a way not just to try
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  Speaker 2: to solve that problem, but also to try to help
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  Speaker 2: somebody that isn't when they're darkest hours. We're going to
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  Speaker 2: have people that come through on different charges. If it's
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  Speaker 2: domestic violence, if it's retail theft, if it's just the
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  Speaker 2: possession that we talk about of a controlled substance or methamphetamine,
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  Speaker 2: and it's not just a matter of them just hitting
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  Speaker 2: that dark spot, but it's also something they've been dealing
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  Speaker 2: with for a while that people don't always see on
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  Speaker 2: the surface. It's going to be something where they've had
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  Speaker 2: abuse beforehand, or they've had something. People don't just pick
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  Speaker 2: up methamphetamine for the first time just because they want to.
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  Speaker 2: It's just going to be something that's built up for
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  Speaker 2: a while, and what we want to try to do
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  Speaker 2: is help them through that process, especially when there is
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  Speaker 2: a willingness to do so. Nobody's gonna be successful in
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  Speaker 2: drug court. Must they want to seek that help?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and it's important I think, you know,
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  Speaker 1: in this world, in this time and age right now,
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  Speaker 1: where it's so easy, you know, the online culture for
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  Speaker 1: people to take a look at something at very surface level,
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  Speaker 1: past some judgment and just say that is what it is.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you know, that must be a bad person,
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  Speaker 1: Like why would they do something like that? To take
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  Speaker 1: a look beyond try to have some empathy and say, like,
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  Speaker 1: I think we can we can really help some of
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  Speaker 1: these people. And you guys have actually been seeing success
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  Speaker 1: with this.
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  Speaker 2: Oh for sure. I mean we've some of the harder
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  Speaker 2: cases that we have are dealing with those that are
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  Speaker 2: dependent on alcohol, and that tends to be the acceptable
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  Speaker 2: thing that you have around society where it's well, alcohol's legal,
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  Speaker 2: we're allowed to do this, so we just ignore the
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  Speaker 2: fact that people are either alcoholics or they're dealing with
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  Speaker 2: this issue that pushes them over our edge, like we
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  Speaker 2: talk about with domestic violence, and that seems to be
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  Speaker 2: the key factor in a lot of the domestic violence
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  Speaker 2: cases is that alcohol is involved and then there's some
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  Speaker 2: type of physical confrontation that occurs. So if we can
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  Speaker 2: help somebody come to that realization. If we can help
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  Speaker 2: somebody that grapples with that situation and give them the
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  Speaker 2: tools they need to say hold on, wait a second,
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  Speaker 2: I know what's happening here, then we can give them
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  Speaker 2: those tools throughout their entire life too, to be able
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  Speaker 2: to say, I'm seeing triggering points here. I'm seeing things
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  Speaker 2: that are not good for me and my mental health
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  Speaker 2: right now. So let's use the tools that I've gotten
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  Speaker 2: from drug court to be successful in this specific situation.
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  Speaker 1: Hell was how long has been drug court been around now?
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  Speaker 2: About twenty years in Lee County. It varies from county
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  Speaker 2: to county. Some counties are a little bit longer, a
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  Speaker 2: little bit less. But yeah, I'd like to say that
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  Speaker 2: we're one of the better counties that actually do it.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a little biased towards it.
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  Speaker 1: But hey, you're involved in it, you're working it, and
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  Speaker 1: you're seeing the success with it, so you can't help
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  Speaker 1: but be a little biased, right And.
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  Speaker 2: I can't say enough about the team either. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: we have a good set of people that work on
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  Speaker 2: this team, Dixon Police Department, Sheriff's office, all the other
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  Speaker 2: law enforcement folks that come in and help out with
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  Speaker 2: it probation department. They do a great job screening them
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  Speaker 2: and keeping track with them. And I think what's really
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  Speaker 2: unique to our our probation department or court services is
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  Speaker 2: that working really hard to make these people successful. We're
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  Speaker 2: not here to try to get somebody hung up or
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  Speaker 2: try to get somebody in prison. And that's what I
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  Speaker 2: think is so cool about it, is that we're building
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  Speaker 2: that trust with them so that they know they can
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  Speaker 2: screw up and we're still going to be there to
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  Speaker 2: help them even when somebody gets through the program. We
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  Speaker 2: tell them every time that we're here. If you have
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  Speaker 2: anything that's a slip up or anything that you want
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  Speaker 2: to talk about, just come back. Just because your case
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  Speaker 2: is closed doesn't mean we're going away. So I mean,
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  Speaker 2: the judges have been fantastic with that. Judge Ackert's been
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  Speaker 2: the drug court judge for nearly those two decades and
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  Speaker 2: now Judge Kloon has taken over his drug court and
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  Speaker 2: we're excited to see where it's going to go from here.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you know, I love what this really does
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  Speaker 1: is this brings our justice system to be a community
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  Speaker 1: justice system, right sure. So otherwise, again taking that surface level, look,
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  Speaker 1: you think attorneys. One guy's defending, one guy's just trying
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  Speaker 1: to prosecute, and that's what that is. Judge is passing
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  Speaker 1: the sentence, Cops making the arrest, sheriffs, you know, housing
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  Speaker 1: them and holding them down. And you think that's just
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  Speaker 1: where it ends to hear everybody dabbling in and doing
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  Speaker 1: their part to say, hey, we want to help somebody
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  Speaker 1: and not just pick people up off the street, pass
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  Speaker 1: a judgment and send them on their way, like we
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  Speaker 1: want a better community for what we're doing.
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  Speaker 2: For sure, yep. And that's what's so important about like
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  Speaker 2: some of the trainings that we go to as well,
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  Speaker 2: because there are national standards, there's state standards that we have,
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  Speaker 2: you know with Illinois and across America to what we
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  Speaker 2: need to do to make sure that we're following the
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  Speaker 2: following the science as it comes to how drug court
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  Speaker 2: systems can work. And you know, we go to the
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  Speaker 2: RISE conference almost every year, depending on the funding that's
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  Speaker 2: available for it. And it's a good refresher that we
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  Speaker 2: get every year to go either if it's in California
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  Speaker 2: and Florida, Nashville wherever it is, and sometimes it's in Washington, DC.
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  Speaker 2: Because you're around those like minded people and you're getting
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  Speaker 2: folks like Jermaine Galloway that we were talking about. Is
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  Speaker 2: they give you those tools that you need so that
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  Speaker 2: you can approach these situations and actually understand where somebody
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  Speaker 2: is coming from, bring them back to our community, and
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  Speaker 2: then explore new possibilities with those So again, the training
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  Speaker 2: is a big part of that. Without the training, we
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't be able to be as successful as we are.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, speaking of Jermaine Galloway, I absolutely
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  Speaker 1: love the nickname tall Cop. If you didn't get any
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  Speaker 1: context for this before, you might have thought we were
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  Speaker 1: having a revival of an eighties action flip. It's so cool.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us more about Jermaine.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, So he is a tall cop. He's about
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  Speaker 2: six foot nine. He's going to be coming to the
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  Speaker 2: Dixon area. He's done a lot of work both you know,
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  Speaker 2: nationally and internationally. He's been up to Canada as well
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  Speaker 2: to train individuals like we've talked about on that multidisciplinary
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  Speaker 2: team on what to look for with drug trends, what
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  Speaker 2: to look at when it comes to new and emerging
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  Speaker 2: trends that are coming forward, and even the drugs that
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  Speaker 2: you're seeing in plain sight. Jermaine's got a good background
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  Speaker 2: of over twenty years in law enforcement. He's been doing
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  Speaker 2: the tall Cop stuff since about two thousand and seven,
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  Speaker 2: so he's well founded. He's won awards, done many articles,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of books that have been written about the
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  Speaker 2: work that he's doing, and we're excited about him coming
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  Speaker 2: here on April ninth. There's going to be two different
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  Speaker 2: sessions for it. The first one is if between one
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  Speaker 2: and four. Both sessions are free. But the first one
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  Speaker 2: is between one and four and that's going to be
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  Speaker 2: for our you know, the multi disiplinary team members that
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about, these professionals that come through that we
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  Speaker 2: have like educators, law enforcement, judges, treatment providers, court services,
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  Speaker 2: anybody you can think of where substance abuse is touching on,
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  Speaker 2: where even parents will learn something about these these trends
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  Speaker 2: and what to look for. One of the things he
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  Speaker 2: does that's really cool is he can go out into
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  Speaker 2: the community kind of take a look around of what
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  Speaker 2: kind of trends that maybe he's seeing. He's done that
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  Speaker 2: over eighty four hundred times across America, across the Canada,
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  Speaker 2: and to kind of figure out what it is that
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  Speaker 2: we should be looking at as a community where there's
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  Speaker 2: problems and where we could look for solutions. It's not
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  Speaker 2: to say that we're doing anything wrong, but it's there's
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  Speaker 2: things that that are community. We'll see where there's drugs
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  Speaker 2: being hidden in plain sight and we just don't even
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  Speaker 2: see it there. It's just product in a way, and
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  Speaker 2: it's packaged in a way that community has just seeing
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  Speaker 2: it there as just a normal enhancer.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, yeah, one hundred percent it is. I've always
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  Speaker 1: found it kind of fascinating where we decide to draw
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  Speaker 1: the line on what's a drug and what's acceptable and then,
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  Speaker 1: like you said, leading to some of the same problems
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  Speaker 1: that other classified drugs lead to. But we're like, this
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  Speaker 1: is okay.
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  Speaker 2: And the problem with that is we keep seeing these
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  Speaker 2: products that are coming out that are synthetics quote unquote.
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  Speaker 2: There's symptimes and it constantly changes, they change the chemical
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  Speaker 2: makeup of it, and a lot of it, you know,
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  Speaker 2: being referred to as like gas station heroin. You'll see
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  Speaker 2: these pills that are in there that don't even trigger
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  Speaker 2: anything to you. It's just these enhancer pills or whatever
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  Speaker 2: it may be. But until you really look at what's
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  Speaker 2: inside of these things, until you really unpack. You know,
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  Speaker 2: even like the vape situation, you may not necessarily see
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  Speaker 2: that they're there's a chemical makeup there that can be
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  Speaker 2: harmful to anyone across the board, but specifically that it
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  Speaker 2: is attacking our youth here too. So a lot of
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  Speaker 2: times when he comes through and he talks to groups
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  Speaker 2: of people, it's just a matter of giving awareness as
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  Speaker 2: to listen, these are some things that you may not
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  Speaker 2: see on the surface, but what are what's actually going
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  Speaker 2: on in your community?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean so many of these synthetic products
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  Speaker 1: they're not even FDA regulated, so it's like you have
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  Speaker 1: no idea what's in this stuff. But gas station herein
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  Speaker 1: is a perfect, perfect term for what is strongly turning,
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  Speaker 1: in my opinion, into an epidemic kind of nationwide for sure. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: anything else you want to share this morning, CHARLII, We've
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  Speaker 1: got a few minutes.
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  Speaker 2: No, all I'd say is that it's a good opportunity
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  Speaker 2: for anybody in the community to come out again. That
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  Speaker 2: one to four spot is going to be a big
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  Speaker 2: portion of trying to educate our professionals in the area.
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  Speaker 2: The nighttime one six o'clock one is eighteen and up,
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  Speaker 2: so if you're a parent or somebody that wants to
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  Speaker 2: go to that, just make sure that not to bring
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  Speaker 2: your kids that are under eighteen. Again, it's free. You
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  Speaker 2: can go on Shaw and there's a link there as well.
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  Speaker 2: If you go to the Lee County Drug Court Facebook page,
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  Speaker 2: there should be a flyer there. There's flyers all over
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  Speaker 2: our community. If you go to the courthouser is a
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  Speaker 2: flyer there. But again it'll be at the Dixon Historic Theater.
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  Speaker 2: Plenty of seating available. We'd love to pack the place
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  Speaker 2: so that our community can see the wonderful things that
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  Speaker 2: Germaine's gonna tell us.
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  Speaker 1: So no registration, I'm assuming you should.
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  Speaker 2: Register y well, make sure that we have enough seating
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  Speaker 2: for everybody, So use that QR code that's on a
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  Speaker 2: flyer or on Facebook. Register that so we can make
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  Speaker 2: sure that there's gonna be enough seating for everyone there.
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  Speaker 1: You go get online registered. Know what is going on
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  Speaker 1: in your community, because it's probably affecting your children. Charlie,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for coming in sharing this inficuation and all
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  Speaker 1: the fine work you're doing. I love hearing about this
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  Speaker 1: drug court. I hope you have continued success.
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  Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Thank you