A $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will fund a new drug treatment court in Flathead County for three years, according to District Court Judge Heidi Ulbricht.
The court, dubbed the Flathead Family Treatment Court, will focus on cases where children have been placed in foster care and will offer treatment instead of punishment that is aimed at reuniting families. According to Ulbricht, 150 children were removed from their parent’s custody in Flathead County in 2017; 120 of those cases were because of drugs.
“We have an extreme drug problem in this valley,” Ulbricht said. “We hope that this treatment court will improve reunification rates.”
Ulbricht will oversee the new court with assistance from the Montana Department of Justice, the Office of the State Public Defender, the Child and Family Services Division of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and local treatment providers. The court is expected to handle 12 families during the first year and 20 families during the second and third years.
Participation in the court will be voluntary and the defendant will have to be diagnosed with a drug addiction by a certified treatment councilor. Participants will be required to come up with a treatment plan, meet with councilors and submit to weekly drug tests. The new court is expected to start in early 2019.