Superior
Court 4 probation
Programs
The Shield Electronic Monitoring
Program is a tool used by LaPorte Superior
Court No. 4 to help protect victims of domestic
abuse from their abuser. The program is
provided by Sentencing
Alternatives, a company based in Anaheim
, California . The device notifies police
and probation if an offender approaches
the victim. It also provides redundancies
of protection should the victim be away
from home. See an articleabout
a success story of the Shield.
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The Swanson Center is the
local mental health agency in LaPorte County
. LaPorte Superior Court No. 4 works closely
with the Swanson Center . The Swanson Center
provides alcohol counseling through the
Passages Program. Nearly every defendant
convicted of alcohol-related offenses are
referred to the Swanson Center for assessment
and any potential treatment.
The Swanson Center also provides
counseling for offenders who commit batteries.
Offenders who are referred to the Swanson
Center for battery offenses are evaluated
and placed in either an eight (8) week anger
management program or a sixteen (16) week
domestic violence program patterned after
the "Duluth
Model".
Once Offenders complete domestic
violence treatment at the Swanson Center
, they are required to prepare an essay
that they present to Judge William J. Boklund
in a court setting. The Judge reviews the
essay and asks them questions pertaining
to their course of treatment. This motivates
offenders to participate and digest the
information given to them in class. Judge
Boklund received the Governor's Exemplary
Project Award in 1996 for this program.
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This program is
provided to repeat offenders, at no cost,
by the probation department. This program
is based on the research conducted by Stanton
Saminaw. The focus of the group is that
everyone is responsible for their actions
and everyone makes a choice. This program
identifies the error in thought that leads
to criminal behavior and provides offenders
with the tools to correct their "errors
in thinking".
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Prisoners and Community Together,
or P.A.C.T., is a non-profit community correction
agency that provides a variety of dispositional
alternatives to LaPorte Superior Court No.
4. The following is a listing of those services.
Community Service: PACT assigns,
supervises and monitors all community service
assignments ordered in LaPorte Superior
Court No. 4. PACT oversees community service
sites and informs the court of successful
completion or violations of the program.
Road Crew: The road crew is
a dispositional alternative that converts
one week of jail time into one weekend of
road crew service. The road crew works each
week on Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 am
to 4:00 pm . The road crew provides organized
community service and cleans parks, roadsides
and the entire Michigan City Community.
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This device is ordered to
be installed on vehicles driven by offenders
arrested for certain Operating While Intoxicated
offenses. Once the device is installed on
the offender's vehicle, the offender
must blow into a mouthpiece that detects
the presence of alcohol. If alcohol is detected,
the vehicle cannot be started. Once the
offender starts to drive, the device requires
the offender to provide more breath samples
at various times. If alcohol is detected,
the horn of the vehicle is activated and
will not stop blowing until the vehicle
is turned off. The only way to re-start
the vehicle is by providing a clean breath
sample.
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Victim Impact Panel:
The victim impact panel is
provided once a month for drunk driving
offenders. The panel consists of victims
of drunk driving accidents or surviving
family members of drunk driving accidents.
The victims try to express the ripple effect
of the accident so that offenders gain a
certain degree of insight into the potential
damage they might have caused.
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The victim offender
mediation program is a cooperative project
between LaPorte Superior Court No. 4 and
the LaPorte Circuit Court, Michigan City
Division. Trained mediators oversee a meeting
between victim and offender in an effort
to repair the victim. The victim and offender
often work out an agreed resolution that
can include restitution or other requirements
of the offender.
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Probation Administrative Hearings
These hearings allow offenders
that have committed a technical rule violation
to work out an informal agreement with the
probation department. If all parties agree
to the outcome, the court ratifies the agreement
and it becomes part of the legal record.
This allows offenders to complete various
conditions of probation without facing a
probation revocation.
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