The US Department of Justice-Bureau of Justice Assistance has awarded the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation with nearly half-million dollar grant.
The three year grant will increase drug court services statewide by enhancing programming to drug court participants, evaluate each of the programs and trainings for specific team members. It will also enable drug court participants to attend Thinking for a Change, an integrated cognitive behavioral change program that has been effective at reducing recidivism. John Gourde (gord) is Parole and Probation Program Manager with the Department of Corrections. He says funding for corrections is always tight - especially for employee training.
"This grant will also provide training for up to at least three people from each of our five drug court teams throughout the state, as far as them being able to attend our National Association of Drug Court Professionals, which is the association for drug courts across the country - they host an annual conference and it will really give an opportunity for those team members to go and get some of the most up to date training on best practices and where the field of drug courts are headed. For some of our newer staff it will be a great intro training for them as well."
Gourde says there are currently 119 active participants in drug court in North Dakota, located in Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, Bismarck and Jamestown.