Court program takes therapeutic approach with low-level offenders: 'We're not giving up on people'

Gavel Photo credit Getty Images

By Andy Dahn

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — "We're showing people that they're not disposable. We're not giving up on people."

Kelly Gallivan-Ilarraza is director of Problem Solving Courts for Cook County, a network with a goal of helping high-risk, high-need people stay out of the criminal justice system for low-level offenses.

It’s done through counseling, treatment and supervision.

"Just last year, [there were] 117 graduates of our Problem Solving Courts during a pandemic," Gallivan-Ilarraza said. "That's 117 people who would otherwise have gone to IDOC who have now put their lives in a different path."

Gallivan-Ilarraza said a key part of drug, veterans and mental health treatment courts is flipping the script on the perception of judges.

"Each of them engages with the participant, is congratulatory. They say things like 'I'm proud of you.' Even if they have a mishap or relapse, 'We're not giving up on you. We're here for you.'"

Courts in Maywood, Bridgeview and Markham recently received a $550,000 grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which will go towards clinical case management.

"If every single person had this great team that stopped to say, 'Wait, I'm not going to try to prosecute this person to the fullest. Instead, what can we offer them?' It would be a whole different world."

Gallivan Ilarraza said simply put, the courts can be life changing, and in some cases lifesaving.

"For a lot of them, it's the first time that somebody acknowledged that they were human and that we care."