Before she came to Douglas County, Shannon Bruegge, behavioral health parole officer, worked for eight years in Cass County, Mo., supervising clients with substance use disorders as part of a drug court. “I saw people’s lives transformed,” she told Douglas County commissioners during ...
A key player in the Douglas County criminal justice system on Wednesday told county commissioners that he is “fully in support” of a drug court — “but I don't think that's the place where we ought to be stopping.” Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said he wants to ...
Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday will attend a work session on specialty courts — such as a drug court — as possible alternatives to incarceration. The county launched a behavioral health court in 2017 as one means of keeping those with mental illness and behavioral health needs ...
In a quick motion on Wednesday, Douglas County commissioners approved a program that will place behavioral health peer specialists in the emergency department at LMH Health. The Douglas County Peer Fellows Program will train peer specialists and provide them with professional development, ...
A behavioral health program that would place several peer specialists in the LMH Health emergency department will come up for a vote at Wednesday’s Douglas County Commission meeting. As the Journal-World reported on March 11, the Douglas County Peer Fellows Program would train peer ...
It might not be long before the bubble around Douglas County employees’ “extremely low deductible” health insurance plan bursts. As county commissioners begin to wade into their 2020 budget process, the insurance concern looms on a slightly less distant horizon than the decisions that ...
Though Douglas County Commissioners appreciated his honesty, that’s ultimately what led them to defer a request from Rich Eckert, of Bettis Asphalt. Eckert, general counsel for the company, had come to the commission’s meeting on Wednesday with a request for a temporary business permit to ...
Douglas County staff has been eyeing the now-vacant space that, until late February, housed Lawrence Municipal Court. On Wednesday, interim County Administrator Sarah Plinsky will seek the County Commission’s approval to negotiate a lease for the space at 1006 New Hampshire St. Plinsky ...
Douglas County Emergency Management has two free events coming up for those who want to learn more about severe weather and how to help others, should disaster strike. Emergency Management will offer Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, training, which aims to prepare citizens ...
Queens Road, or East 1000 Road, will be closed to through traffic from its intersection with Wakarusa Drive to Route 438 (or Farmers Turnpike, North 1800 Road), starting Monday, March 25. The project will repair the concrete deck of the bridge carrying Queens Road over Baldwin Creek, about ...
As part of efforts to pare down the numbers of people in the Douglas County Jail in recent years, the county has launched a few new programs. One of them has grown by 67 percent in just a year. Douglas County’s pretrial release, house arrest and behavioral health court are three of the key ...
The Douglas County Commission has renewed hope that the county might have a seat at the table as the city of Lawrence seeks to hire the new chief of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical. Lawrence City Manager Tom Markus indicated at the City Commission’s March 5 meeting that he did not ...
Story updated at 9:13 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, 2019: An "unusually severe" winter — including this week's rain — has Douglas County's townships struggling to repair roads, and state law says there's not much the county can do to help. Townships aim to keep property taxes low by ...
Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday will discuss a message they want to send to the city of Lawrence regarding the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical department. After Lawrence City Manager Tom Markus indicated that he did not intend to include a county representative in the hiring ...
Nearly half of people — 48 percent — with serious mental illnesses who were released from the Douglas County Jail from January to June 2017 returned within six months. Of that group, 38 percent were brought back to jail because they missed a court appearance. Those statistics are two of ...
The Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council will hear a report Tuesday that details the county's criminal justice services for 2018. Among slides in the report from Pam Weigand, the county’s director of criminal justice services, are demographics and statistics for populations ...
Bill Reilly got a bit emotional as he shared his story with Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday. He told the commission that he “entered the system” as a 2-year-old kid. Over the decades since, he’s been a foster child, a patient in rehab and mental hospitals, and he’s survived ...
Justice Matters has officially closed the books on last spring’s Proposition 1 referendum by filing a campaign spending report that shows that the group spent $34,555 in its campaign against the ballot measure. On Feb. 18, the faith-based group filed an accounting of the money it raised and ...
Douglas County commissioners voiced displeasure Wednesday about the City of Lawrence’s intent to recruit and hire the next chief of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical with no input from county staff. Talks continue between Douglas County and City of Lawrence staff revisiting the ...
Douglas County commissioners will hear two options to provide accessible viewing platforms at Wells Overlook Park at their new meeting time of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Keith Browning, director of public works and county engineer, wrote in a memo to the commission about two options to construct a ...