Becker County drug court give program update, 129 graduates with only 18% recidivism rate

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – Members of the Becker County Board of Commissioners received a positive update about the success of the county’s drug court program on Tuesday.

Becker County District Court Judge Gretchen Thilmony told the commissioners since the program started in 2006, they have graduated 129 people from the program and 82% have not reoffended.

“Obviously, the one thing you want when someone is charged and convicted is, you don’t want them to do it again.” said Thilmony, during the meeting. “So, that’s the whole goal. We don’t want them back in the criminal justice system.”

Additionally, 120 graduates were employed by the time of their drug court graduation and 58 obtained their driver’s licenses while enrolled in the program.

All offenders required to pay child support became current on their payments and all graduates had maintained their sobriety for at least a year following the completion of the program.

“For those people, who the impetus was to commit their crime with an addiction, we treat the addiction” she said. “And that can, many times, change behavior and therefor reduce recidivism and see them become productive members of society.”

Currently, the drug court program has 20 participants, including 15 from Clay County and five from Becker County.