OUR COUNTY
D. Gary Davis

County Mayor

I spent the week of August 7^th in Boston, Massachusetts. No, unfortunately, it was not a vacation. I attended a workshop along with a team from Bradley County on “Planning Your Juvenile Drug Court” funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The instructors spent a week immersing the participants in all aspects of a juvenile drug court. I learned a great deal about this program and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the wonderful staff we have in Bradley County working in the numerous Juvenile Court Programs.

In October 2005 Judge Deacon and his staff applied for funding to begin a Juvenile Drug Court in Bradley County. The funding was awarded in March of this year and Linda Callaway, Director of Juvenile Court and Lisa Wiley, Drug Court Coordinator have been working on fulfilling the requirements of the grant by implementing a local Juvenile Drug Court.

The concept for a Juvenile Drug Court emerged as juvenile court judges across the country saw the rapid increase in juvenile drug offences. Judges also found that the traditional methods used in juvenile courts were ineffective in treating juveniles with substance abuse problems.

The numerous benefits of a juvenile drug court include cost savings, reduction in crime, a safer community and improvements in the grades, attendance and behavior of participants. Drug court differs from traditional court in that there is weekly supervision versus monthly; a case manager provides education to the participants and their families in areas such as life skills, violence prevention and anger management; and parents and/or guardians are required to participate in the program.

The goal is to have the Bradley County Juvenile Drug Court fully implemented by January 2007 with approximately 30 youth anticipated to participate during the pilot program. If you would like more information about this program please contact Linda Callaway at 728.7083 or Lisa Wiley at 728.7097.

I am thrilled to be hosting some distinguished guests on the Courthouse Square on Thursday. Commander Dean T. Nielsen, along with 14 officers and crew of the USS Tennessee will arrive on Thursday afternoon and spend the weekend here. The visit is to support Kaylee Marie Radzyminski and the Tunes 4 the Troops Program.

I am sure most of you have heard or read about Kaylee, but for those of you that don’t know she is a fifteen year old student at Cleveland High School. She is also a United States Naval Sea Cadet and through this program learned that many of the troops do not have access to music or movies. So Kaylee began a drive collecting unwanted CDs, DVDs or books on CD last year.

I hope all of you will come to the Courthouse Square on Thursday at 4:00 pm to welcome Commander Nielsen and crew members to Cleveland and Bradley County. To find out more about Tunes 4 the Troops, please visit www.tunes4thetroops.20m.com.