WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:22.220 630 call a meeting to order. Welcome to everyone to the meeting of the Court Services Committee Wednesday, May 13th, 2026. I appreciate everybody that's here. First agenda item is the prayer. Anybody want to take care of that? I'll do it. 00:00:22.220 --> 00:00:43.520 Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us this time to get together and work on the county's business. Thank you for the beautiful day. Looking forward to spring and summer. Father, please help us make wise decisions as we work on the important business for the county. In Jesus' name, amen. 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:44.520 Thank you very much. 00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:50.520 Can I get a motion for the approval of the agenda? 00:00:50.860 --> 00:00:51.220 So moved. 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:53.260 Moved by Mr. Busker. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:53.880 Second. 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:55.520 Second by Mr. Hadley. 00:00:56.100 --> 00:00:57.140 Any discussion? 00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:00.580 Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. 00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:01.200 Aye. 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:02.500 Those opposed, same sign. 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:04.000 Motion passes. 00:01:05.820 --> 00:01:11.920 Next, 4.0 is a review and approval of meeting minutes from April 8, 2026 meeting. 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:12.920 Can I get a motion? 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:13.900 So moved. 00:01:13.900 --> 00:01:39.640 Second. Seconded by Mr. Hadley. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.0 is approval of claims. And the total is $56,422.08. Does anyone want to look at them? 00:01:39.640 --> 00:02:09.640 can I get a motion second motion by Ms. Williams second by Mr. Busker any discussion seeing none all those in favor say aye aye those opposed same sign Eric none motion passes a 6.0 public comment anybody here for public comment? 00:02:09.640 --> 00:02:14.420 It's been interesting lately. 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:19.080 Okay, reports to the committee by Judge Hauser. 00:02:19.260 --> 00:02:20.400 I have not heard from Judge. 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:24.460 Last time I talked to him last month, he said everything was gone. 00:02:25.380 --> 00:02:28.920 Public defender, Travis is out. 00:02:29.720 --> 00:02:31.560 Probation, Dr. McGee is here. 00:02:32.640 --> 00:02:33.180 Good evening. 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:34.280 Good evening. 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:36.280 So just a few updates. 00:02:36.760 --> 00:02:39.460 So you have the report in front of you. 00:02:39.640 --> 00:03:09.140 Tammy Neiman was going to had accepted the second probation supervisor position. However, due to some personal issues, she is not able to relocate at this time. So in speaking with the administrative office, we've decided to move forward with that position. So it has been reposted as of April 27. So if there is someone that you know of who is interested, please send them my way. 00:03:09.140 --> 00:03:15.220 I'll probably be conducting interviews maybe around the first week of June. That position does need to be 00:03:15.220 --> 00:03:21.960 filled by August 20th, or I would have to file a supplemental because it is to be done within this 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:34.180 fiscal year. Secondly, I have Mr. Hale here, Lamont Hale, some of you may know him. I know, Mr. Haley, 00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:40.600 you have talked about juvenile services and youth programming and I have done research and looked into 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:47.300 different programs and really the push now is more towards the cognitive behavioral programs and that's 00:03:47.300 --> 00:03:53.040 what we're doing now with our thinking for a change program we brought in pastor soul to help with 00:03:53.040 --> 00:04:01.320 our adults who come out of DLC to help in that area as well and that's another cognitive behavioral type 00:04:01.320 --> 00:04:30.480 program. And with the juveniles, we have started the MRT. And in speaking with Mr. Hale, I thought it would be very beneficial to collaborate. One of the things that I feel is important in this community is mentoring for our youth. And in reviewing our juvenile caseload, and this is not a knock against single parents, but we did find that the majority of them 00:04:31.320 --> 00:04:39.620 the youth that were in trouble came from single parent homes, mostly where the male, there was no male father figure, so 00:04:39.620 --> 00:04:46.520 Ron, I think right time, so I'm going to let you kind of take away and talk about what we're waiting for. 00:04:46.520 --> 00:04:54.400 So I got Twin Image Counseling Services, I'm the owner, CEO of it, and then I teamed up with Chris. 00:04:54.400 --> 00:05:00.320 Chris is from Rockford, he owns Course Corrections, he does stuff with 00:05:00.320 --> 00:05:07.820 Domestic Violence and Substance Abuse over in Rocker. And so him and I teamed up together. So with this 16-week 00:05:07.820 --> 00:05:13.900 program, it's called Pathways Forward. I focus on the mental health portion of it. He focused on the 00:05:13.900 --> 00:05:18.760 substance abuse portion of it. And it's really, just like we're sitting in here now, we'll bring 00:05:18.760 --> 00:05:24.880 up a topic. So this week, the topic was coping skills, right? So I asked him, have you become 00:05:24.880 --> 00:05:28.680 overwhelmed, right? Everybody's needed to become overwhelmed. What do you do when you become 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:33.860 over a while. What do you do when you become sad? What do you do when you become angry? And each person 00:05:33.860 --> 00:05:39.100 went around and gave their story, right? So now is this how you dealt with it? Is it an unhealthy coping 00:05:39.100 --> 00:05:44.520 skill? Is it a healthy coping skill which you consider to be neutral, right? And if it was unhealthy, 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:52.980 what do you think you could do to make it healthier, right? And then young people are more, I'm going to 00:05:52.980 --> 00:05:58.080 say emotional and don't control their thoughts per second. 00:05:58.180 --> 00:05:59.500 They just look at the moment, right? 00:05:59.620 --> 00:06:07.520 And so choosing like looking at the moment can get you in trouble based off the stuff we talk about, right? 00:06:07.520 --> 00:06:12.480 The stuff we talk about that's overwhelming them and their behaviors, the skills they were using. 00:06:12.620 --> 00:06:13.500 Some of them was unhealthy. 00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:19.420 And so looking at that and saying, hey, who else could this affect and what could have went wrong, right? 00:06:19.420 --> 00:06:23.980 You could have went to this person's house and you might be dead, right? 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:30.580 Now, if you're dead, now who's going to feel remorse for that? 00:06:30.820 --> 00:06:34.940 And in this situation, the key would be like, hey, I went there because of my sister. 00:06:35.080 --> 00:06:39.700 So now your sister is going to feel remorse because somebody just says you're dead because of her, right? 00:06:39.940 --> 00:06:44.780 And so it's really based on what they tell us or share with us is how we approach it. 00:06:44.780 --> 00:06:48.180 And so I could have used coping skills that I used in traditional counseling, 00:06:48.180 --> 00:07:18.180 but I'll incorporate that such as breathing techniques and music you know that stuff works but being able to listen to them where they're at and finding out hey that's how we can change this skill. Probation gets a report every the group is held on Mondays from 5 to 6 30 at the Boys and Girls Club. Probation gets a report what happened in the group what was the topic about for that week what was the topic about for next 00:07:18.180 --> 00:07:25.080 week, what was the attendance who all showed up, and then the participation, did they participate? 00:07:25.820 --> 00:07:31.900 So we don't go into detail with probation about what was discussed, it's just more of an overgeneral 00:07:31.900 --> 00:07:37.160 view of they participated, they showed up, this is what was talked about, this is what's 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:39.820 going to be talked about next, is kind of what we do. 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:42.320 Anybody got any questions? 00:07:43.440 --> 00:07:43.920 Yes. 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:48.560 So, we're sending the juveniles to this program, correct? 00:07:49.980 --> 00:07:59.140 What are we doing about juveniles that are kicked out of high school and to try to get their GED and stuff like that? Is that something you work with? 00:08:00.760 --> 00:08:09.880 So, I don't specifically work with juveniles trying to get their GED. I mean, the kids that we hear are referred to by the probation officer. 00:08:09.880 --> 00:08:15.680 and so if they may be kicked out of school or they may be working on their GED but I don't have that 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:23.800 information. Yeah that's a collaborative effort with the juvenile officer and other agencies to work 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:32.100 with the families with truancy they come over to probation and meet with us to discuss people who 00:08:32.100 --> 00:08:41.340 are on the brink of being kicked out of school. There's the GED program, but, you know, you have to be 00:08:41.340 --> 00:08:49.260 engaged to get involved in that, but there are resources available in the community, so they work 00:08:49.260 --> 00:08:54.520 with their juvenile officer. I might recommend Chairman Helms, you're on the Workforce Connection 00:08:54.520 --> 00:09:01.900 Board. There's juvenile money for Stevenson County programs and stuff like that. You might 00:09:01.900 --> 00:09:28.480 might want to collaborate with her. Maybe she already knows about some of these programs, but, you know, there is programs through Goodwill Services, I believe, that pays for them for their pre-test and then their testing and they take care of that stuff. But there, you know, there's money allotted to Workforce Connection and it's no secret out there. 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:39.040 It's been going on for years that it's a one parent family situation, you know, and no male figure there at the house and stuff like that. 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:48.700 And I want to say, sorry to interrupt you, but I think that's why myself and Chris can relate to the kids because we both like males and they open up and talk to us. 00:09:49.140 --> 00:09:51.560 Right. And so they feel like they can relate to us. 00:09:51.560 --> 00:09:59.940 When I first started, I was thinking that it may be some resistance because either they know me or their parents know me and they know I used to be the police. 00:09:59.940 --> 00:10:18.380 know me, and they knew I used to be the police, and, like, when I was at the detention center, one of the kids came in, the same group, and he was like, hey, weren't you at the detention center over at Hopingford? And I was like, yeah. He's like, yeah, I was locked up there. I go, okay, I recognize him, too. So they can relate to us because we look like him, right? Right. So, really. 00:10:18.380 --> 00:10:42.460 And I think that is important, too, because that relatability factor, I mean, let's be honest, it's not there as much. There's not a lot of diversity within the department. But also, what is the comment that they made about probation? Because, you know, we try all these different things. But didn't they say what they say about probation that we do? 00:10:42.460 --> 00:11:11.340 Yeah, probation does too much is what they say. And so I was like, okay, let's examine, let's examine that thought, probation does too much. What do you mean by that? Well, probation, they restrict our freedom is basically the main concern that restrict our freedom. I said, so does probation restrict your freedom? Or the things that you do cause probation to put restrict your freedom, right? So what did you do? Let's talk about that. And so then they talk about what they did. And so if you really don't want to be on probation, 00:11:11.340 --> 00:11:18.200 then you might not want to do those things again and so what we do is I'll never tell them hey stop doing it 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:23.340 I'm gonna give you options and so you can think about is this where I want my life to lead like if you want 00:11:23.340 --> 00:11:28.380 to continue to stay on probation that's on you right but if you want to make your life better 00:11:28.380 --> 00:11:34.120 here's some options that make your life better and really the kids listen on my way in here today 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:39.260 there's a kid down there from our group and he had like 25 hours and quarters he's like hey 00:11:39.260 --> 00:11:53.960 Did the bank open? No, the bank's not open. So they talked to us. I saw a couple at KFC, one of the kids worked at KFC, and he had to come to the drive-thru one because his police saw me there. He's like, hey, that guy teaches our group. And so we built connections. 00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:57.100 So what age are you working up to, 18? 00:11:57.280 --> 00:11:57.940 18, yeah 00:11:57.940 --> 00:12:16.940 18. Now, I know Mr. Newton that's on the board, he has a program that he's working with too, with people, getting them prepared for jobs and stuff like that. I don't know if you're aware of that. I think he starts taking them at the age of 18. 00:12:16.940 --> 00:12:28.740 Okay. That was one of the other things we talked about was the emerging young adults and maybe moving into that group as well, which is like the 18 to 25-year-olds. 00:12:29.740 --> 00:12:39.740 We did talk about doing that because we have a curriculum for that age group too. Probation, the juvenile officers, juvenile detectives, the big detectives. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:40.320 Obviously. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:59.140 Okay. The juvenile laws have thought it might be, or they may not want to come because it wouldn't be court order. It'll be voluntary. So there may be some pushback, like I don't want to attend another group. So we have curriculum for it. It isn't in place right now. 00:12:59.140 --> 00:13:23.560 So, juvenile probation has more flexibility in terms of what they can order them to do than what we can do in adult court. If it's not specifically on a court order in the adult court, we're limited. So, we may know someone is, like, using drugs, but they may not be ordered to test. So, that order would have to be modified by the court. 00:13:23.560 --> 00:13:40.040 So, or a particular program that we feel might be beneficial may not be ordered by the court, whereas the juvenile officers have more of a window to say, okay, this is what we feel you need to do. It's more of an open court order, if that makes sense. 00:13:41.160 --> 00:13:44.540 It's a stronger suggestion. Is that it? 00:13:44.540 --> 00:13:55.760 So, do you see progress in this? I mean, they want to, you know, some just don't want to be helped and some want to be helped, you know. 00:13:55.760 --> 00:14:10.000 I would say all the kids that we got that's been coming, you can see a difference from the beginning. And some kids aren't in the group anymore, but I see them in the community and they still remember what was taught to them. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:15.740 So really, I want to just give them that option, what I said before, of I can do something different. 00:14:15.900 --> 00:14:17.180 I don't have to respond this way. 00:14:17.520 --> 00:14:19.320 So I'm going to say, yeah, they've been affected by it. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:23.180 What exactly is the name of your 16-week program? 00:14:23.280 --> 00:14:24.140 Pathways Forward. 00:14:24.560 --> 00:14:24.820 Okay. 00:14:25.380 --> 00:14:25.840 Thank you. 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:26.280 Yeah. 00:14:28.160 --> 00:14:29.380 Mr. Hill, I apologize. 00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:35.360 I didn't even recognize you there, and I somehow skipped over the paragraph saying you were going to be here. 00:14:35.520 --> 00:14:35.860 Oh, okay. 00:14:35.860 --> 00:14:37.000 So thank you for coming. 00:14:37.140 --> 00:14:37.580 No problem. 00:14:37.580 --> 00:14:59.840 And I've been talking to the school board and accountability, in my opinion, is lacking in the school and it sounds like you're addressing that head on, which I think is, you know, you're telling these kids, if you do this, that's why you're in probation, you know, so I think that's very important. 00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:27.560 You know, working at the juvenile detention center, I always related back to that, too, like, hey, look, I was at the detention center, and there were six kids in a first-degree murder, they're going to be in there for, like, 30, 40 years, right? So, you have opportunity to change your life around. It's kind of up to you. You weren't here for any smoking weed because you didn't pass a drive. We weren't here for fighting, right? So, it's not as serious as murdering somebody. So, let's do something about it. 00:15:27.560 --> 00:15:35.640 But like you said, they're making the choice between these things, so then they're being held accountable, so that's great, that's a great program 00:15:35.640 --> 00:15:51.740 And the other thing, Mr. Hadley, is if a juvenile isn't formally charged, if they have like an ordinance violation, one of the things that we do is we'll put them in our life skills program, which is an online program 00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:57.680 so we'll order them to take different courses based on what type of trouble they're getting 00:15:57.680 --> 00:16:03.400 into so like if they may have like a disorderly conduct we may when they take any management 00:16:03.400 --> 00:16:10.280 course so there's various courses that they can take there too and the PO may recommend they do 00:16:10.280 --> 00:16:19.340 something as a part of their sentence. Do we still have a curfew in Freeport? Yeah. 00:16:19.340 --> 00:16:37.140 We don't see a lot of the ordinance violations for Freeport because it's prosecuted by different attorneys, prosecuted by their city attorney, and it's fine only, so they won't see them either in the application. 00:16:37.140 --> 00:16:42.080 Okay. All right. Okay. Anything else from Australia? 00:16:42.300 --> 00:16:42.420 Yeah. 00:16:43.380 --> 00:16:46.920 So, like I was saying, each 16 weeks is a different subject. 00:16:47.540 --> 00:16:47.840 Nice. 00:16:48.020 --> 00:16:48.500 So, yeah. 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:49.060 Very nice. 00:16:49.340 --> 00:17:19.060 What day of the week is that? Mondays from 5 to 6. And this is paid for out of probation service fees. Okay. And you welcome visitors? Oh, if you can let us know ahead of time, because I want to say is because the kids are open up and they share that. Okay. It may kind of be resistant. Okay. If somebody. Nope, I understand. I understand. Yes. It's like it's going to make sure that we tell them that we're not going to go back into a probation. 00:17:19.340 --> 00:17:24.060 unless you say you're going to hurt somebody or you're going to basically kill somebody, stuff like that. 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:30.440 But if you tell me that you were smoking and you know you're not supposed to be smoking, I'm not going to run back into a probation that you smoke. 00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:33.920 I'll just check in with Dr. McGee every now and then. 00:17:35.300 --> 00:17:38.420 I don't want to feel any waves. 00:17:38.600 --> 00:17:40.360 How many participants do you have? 00:17:40.360 --> 00:17:43.760 So last week, this week, we had, I think it was six. 00:17:43.760 --> 00:18:13.360 We've had nine, up to nine, nine or ten. Some of them got us in trouble and had to stop coming back to the group, but it wasn't a group related, but they removed them from the group. So now we've got about six. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. No problem. Yes. Thanks a lot. Okay. And we'll move on to state's attorney. Hi, for those that don't know me, my name is Tom Madigan. I'm one of the assistant state's attorneys. Carl is out tonight. 00:18:13.360 --> 00:18:38.200 is at Highland Community College Leadership Institute graduation. One of our attorneys, Alexis Heisel, is graduating from that program. We typically have someone from our office attend all of those. I think the circuit clerk's office tries to be heavily involved with that as well. So it's a good program, not only to gain some leadership skills, 00:18:38.200 --> 00:19:06.420 but also just to learn about the community and establish a network with other leaders within the community so it's been very beneficial for our office. As far as Carl's report, I guess one of the main positives is for following the offenses. We closed more cases than we're open in the past month. It doesn't seem that way being in that courtroom. It always seems like it's always busy but it is nice to see that and really everything's going pretty well in our office right now. 00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:10.000 So, anyone have any questions? 00:19:10.080 --> 00:19:11.000 Are you fully staffed? 00:19:11.540 --> 00:19:12.540 No, we're short. 00:19:14.040 --> 00:19:21.540 One position right now, we hired our victim witness coordinator, Caden Goodman, was hired as a 7-Eleven student attorney. 00:19:21.900 --> 00:19:28.840 So, she's been handling juvenile abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, and our felony petitions to revoke. 00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:31.760 She's been doing very well handling that. 00:19:32.060 --> 00:19:35.840 But when she's in the courtroom, we have to have an attorney with her supervising. 00:19:35.840 --> 00:19:57.980 that's the only caveat with that. So like this week, I've been in court supervising her Monday, Tuesday, and then today as well. We rotate off on that. So when she becomes fully licensed, she'll take the bar in February next year. She passes and then she'll get fully licensed this morning in May. We'd still be one short. 00:19:57.980 --> 00:19:58.820 in May. We'd still be one short in our office yet. 00:19:58.820 --> 00:20:07.290 Okay. All right. Anybody have any questions? Well, Mr. Madigan, appreciate your time. 00:20:07.830 --> 00:20:21.990 Thanks for coming. I'm a state attorney, circuit clerk. Chanel is absent because she is also at the 00:20:21.990 --> 00:20:35.270 the graduation for Chief Deputy Clerk, Brandy Malencon, I think her name is, graduating from today from the Leadership Institute at Highland College, so congratulations to her. 00:20:36.530 --> 00:20:43.550 And also in her department, Ellen Williams is retiring June 1st. 00:20:44.170 --> 00:20:51.970 She has 20 and a half years of dedicated service, so congratulations to Ellen and thanks, Ellen, for all those years of service. 00:20:51.990 --> 00:21:00.470 Service. Other than that, we have the circuit clerk's report, and I didn't see anything. 00:21:00.650 --> 00:21:11.210 Anybody see anyone there? Okay. All right. Moving on. Youth diversion fees. This month, we got $607.50. 00:21:12.430 --> 00:21:16.270 And I'm assuming that's what the balance is, because we're pretty close to that. We're not sure, 00:21:16.270 --> 00:21:21.710 but we gave most of that away last month in the youth diversion fee. So we'll start over and 00:21:21.710 --> 00:21:47.940 and I'll go from there, so 8.0 is old business, seeing none, 9.0 is new business, does anybody have anything you want to share? Nope? Okay. Can I get a motion for adjournment? So move. Second. Motion by Mr. Busker, second by Mr. Hadley, all those can better say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Same sign. Thank you, everyone. Thank you very much. 00:21:47.940 --> 00:22:06.940 Yes, sir, I do say, are you serious? 00:22:06.940 --> 00:22:08.640 Wow, that's good.