Kansas City
New Use for Problem Solving Courts: Fathering Courts
Jackson County Pioneers Missouri Move to Fathering Courts
http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-story-daddy-do-over-110609,0,5997057.story
Excerpt:
KANSAS CITY, MO - Kevin Gainey was on top of the world. A good job as a bail bondsman, a lake home, and custody of his young son following his divorce.
But bad habits caught up with him, his son moved back with his mom, and Gainey lost his job.
"Wasn't always accountable for my actions," Gainey now says. "A lot of it had to do with my substance abuse problem."
On Thursdays, Municipal Drug Court opens a new path to recovery
Excerpt:
"How you doing?" Judge Joseph Locascio asks a drooped-faced defendant on a Thursday afternoon in Part G of the Municipal Court building. In most other courtrooms, he'd of asked, "How do you plead?"
But this is drug court, one of the city's newest tools in its fight against drug-related crime and recidivism, and Locascio presides over the courtroom not only as a dispenser of justice, but as a lifeline for those ready to change their lives.
Article: http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2009/09/on_thursdays_municpal_drug_court_ope...
Drug Court participants build homes for homeless
Jackson County program opens the door to home ownership
In the end, Jackson County officials and advocates for the homeless wiped away their own tears Monday after they presented a grateful family the keys to a new home.
The home had been donated to the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council and rehabbed with $75,000 in county funds as part of a new program, Constructing Futures. It employs drug-court offenders to do the restoration.