WKTV Staff
news@wktv.org
There is no doubt that a large portion of the caseload of Kent County courts involves persons arrested with clear mental health issues, and that the system in which those persons are handled is burdensome for the courts, not constructive for the arrested, and — ultimately — often do not make the community safer.
But a new county Mental Health Court program — involving law enforcement, courts and the county’s pubic mental health and substance use disorder services provider, Network 180, aims to change the system for the betterment of all.
On the latest WKTV Journal: In Focus, Network 180’s director of network services Ross Buitendorp talks with program host Ken Norris about a program that substitutes a problem-solving model for traditional criminal court processing.
Also on this episode, Katie Fahey, president and treasurer of Voters Not Politicians, a non-partisan ballot committee seeking to put before voters in 2018 a proposal to end gerrymandering in Michigan, talks about the state’s current system of drawing election district maps and how and why the plan Voters Not Politicians are advocating for would change the redistricting system.
The episode will debut Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 6:30 p.m., and will again air on Thursday, and again next week on the same days and times on WKTV channels but all interviews included in episodes of WKTV Journal: In Focus are also available on YouTube at WKTVVideos.
For the video of Ms. Fahey at WKTV visit here.
The entire episode of “WKTV Journal: In Focus” airs on cable television in the Wyoming and Kentwood areas on Comcast WKTV Channel 26 and on AT&T Channel 99 Government channel.
