Berrien County’s specialty courts are funded for another year now that the Berrien County Board of Commissioners has accepted more than $295,000 in grants for them.

The board formally accepted the funding for the Sobriety Court, the Drug Treatment Court, the Mental Health Court, and the Swift and Sure Sanctions Probation Program on Thursday.

Berrien County Trial Court Administrator Carrie Smietanka Haney tells us the specialty courts started in 2009 with the introduction of the Mental Health Court, intended to address the root cause of some of the crimes committed by offenders by getting them into supervised treatment. Whether it’s the Mental Health Court or the Drug Treatment Court, Smietanka-Haney says the goal is to reduce recidivism.

“ The idea is to get more intense

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