The U-S Department of Justice is sending Iowa a three-year 810-thousand dollar grant to help pay for mental health services in Iowa’s drug courts. Dale Woolery is the spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy. “Mental health services are a growing need. They are something that is not always provided,” Woolery says. “Especially in a lot of drug courts where you have offenders who may have a dual diagnosis where they need mental health services as well as drug treatment, they may not be getting the mental health piece of that right now. This grant will help provide those services in those drug courts.” The money will be spread across the state.

“Nine drug courts throughout the state of Iowa, which is most of them…will be benefiting from this grant. These are the drug courts because of that way that they are set up will be benefiting from these grants,” Woolery says. The courts are in Black Hawk, Dubuque, Pottawattamie, Linn, Johnson, Scott, Des Moines, and Wapello counties. The idea behind the courts is to treat the problem to help prevent more problems down the road. “Drug courts generally speaking in Iowa have been showed to be effective in reducing the rate of re-arrest, the rate of relapse, or people who go back to using drugs. And they have shown to be a less costly proposition compared to incarceration,” according to Woolery. “In in general, it looks to be a more efficient way, a more effective way to deal with a lot of drug-addicted offenders.”

Woolery says not everyone who goes to a drug court ends up on the straight an narrow. “But for a lot of drug offenders — especially those who may have a mental health illness as well — it may be a better alternative. We’re hoping that with this grant we’ll learn that if by adding mental health services to drug courts, if they can be an even better investment for Iowa taxpayers,” Woolery says. Iowa Corrections Department director, John Baldwin, estimates about 318 offenders with chemical dependency and mental illness will receive treatment services with the help of the grant.

(Radio Iowa)

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The Walnut City Council will meet Thursday evening. During their 5-p.m. session at the Walnut City Hall, the Council will consider the possible adoption of a Resolution calling for the adoption of an updated Walnut Municipal Utility Identity Theft Prevention Program. In other business, the Council is expected to: Set the date for Trick-or-Treating; Approve a 3-year Sign Lease agreement with D&B Farms Partnership; Act on  a possible motion to execute an agreement with a contractor for the residential hauling of solid waste, and discuss matters pertaining to Peace Haven, as well as a possible Streetscape Enhancement Project.

The Lenox Police Department reports two teenaged boys face charges in connection with the theft of items from several vehicles over the past two-or three-weeks. Officials say the boys were questioned after authorities received a report at around 5:45-p.m. Tuesday, about two male juveniles rummaging through a vehicle in the 400 block of west Nebraska Street, in Lenox.

The caller detained the boys until the officer arrived. Afterward, the 14 and 15-year old youth were transported to the police department and their parents contacted. Following questioning, the boys were connected to a series of thefts from vehicles. A third male juvenile was also implicated.

Several hundred dollars in items stolen from vehicles were recovered from two of the boys homes. The investigation continues with multiple charges of burglary from a motor vehicle pending.