Beryl Frenger honored at her final Sobriety Court Graduation

--Beryl Frenger, 55th District Court Chief Probation Officer and Sobriety Court Administrator, honored at her final Sobriety Court Graduation By Roberta M. Gubbins Legal News Beryl Frenger, Sobriety Court Administrator, was honored at the 55th District Court Sobriety Court Graduation on December 1st at the 30th Circuit Court in Mason. Judge Donald Allan presented her with a bouquet and thanked her for bringing the Sobriety Court program to the court. When Frenger began with the 55th District Court in April, 1989, there was one probation officer and Judge Brennan and Judge McCabe were the sitting judges. "Most of our cases were Drunk Drivers and Retail Fraud," she said. "We didn't have Domestic Violence cases because the laws weren't enforced like they are now." Fernger first became aware of drug courts in 1999. She read about them in a professional publication. Thinking this program would be good for her probationers, she sent a memo to Judge Brennan about the programs. "I grew up in an alcoholic household and I thought Drug courts were the way to go." "Nothing happened for a while," Frenger said. "Judge Brennan finally caved in to my insistence and in 2001, there was a substance abuse conference that we attended. Judge Brennan went to a session on Drug Courts; when he came out, he said, 'When we go back on Monday, we are putting everybody on this.' "I said 'no, we need to think this through.' I applied for a grant to fund a team to go to drug court training in 2002. We were accepted. We went to three sessions--a week in January, in March and in September. We took a team consisting of Judge Brennan and myself, a probation officer, Judge Draganchuk, then an assistant prosecutor, a treatment person, a defense attorney, representatives of the Substance Abuse Commission and Michigan Information Systems (MIS), and the deputy comptroller. We decided our focus would be on repeat offender drunk drivers." "During the trainings it was interesting to hear Prosecutors sound like defense attorneys who sounded like prosecutors. The MIS guy, who I thought would wonder what are we doing here, was really into the program. During the summer of 2003, I saw that there were grant possibilities to fund the program through the SCAO and the Bureau of Justice. I became a grant writer -we needed another probation officer. I was working on my Master's degree and took a course in grant writing so that helped." "In October of 2003, we learned we were receiving grant moneys so on January 1, 2004 we began the program. We hired a full time probation officer. We targeted a program with 70 individuals. We struggled with the name. Initially, we called it Drug Court but when Judge Aquilina came we called it Sobriety Court. I felt strongly that Sobriety Court was a clearer name for what we were doing and it was more positive." "Judge Brennan retired in 2004 and Judge Aquilina took over the program. Our numbers expanded as we added the felony level drunk drivers. If they succeed their offense is reduced to a misdemeanor. We had about 95 people and needed more help. We applied for and got a grant from SCAO and Highway Safety in 2008 so we were able to add a part-time probation officer. In 2009, we received additional funding from grants so have expanded the part-time person to full time." "In 2009, Judge Aquilina ran and won a Circuit Court seat and Judge Allan was appointed. Since the program began in 2004, we have had three judges and I am the only team member left from the original team." The program as it is today: "We have about 70 to 90 participants at any given time," she said. "We have graduated 184 people as of the last graduation of eight people. When it started, there were three probation officers with about four or five hundred cases. Now there are six and one thousand cases." "Most people take 13 to 14 months to complete the program. Our program is very difficult. There is a lot to do--in the beginning there are daily drops and Alcoholics Anonymous and treatment along with community service--as well as trying to find work and live a normal life. We make it tough to stay on the program." "The beauty of drug court is that if there is a relapse during the program, they are back in court as soon as possible to address the issue. We are able to work with them while they are in that 'flux' stage and keep them moving forward. In the end, most people are just sick and tired of being sick and tired." "How many have relapsed? We follow re-arrests, and as of the end of last year, there were few re-arrests. There is no follow-up after graduation. We have talked about having a graduate get-together. I think it would be nice to have a cookout where everyone could come and bring their families and support each other." Funding is always a problem. Judge Aquilina started the Ingham County Sobriety Foundation, which covers all Sobriety courts in Ingham County. "We are trying to raise money to expand the program throughout the county." "There are measureable cost savings to sobriety court, but I think of the intangible costs of a fully functioning family, how do you measure that? How do you measure the fact that the children will have another life rather than one of alchoholism." The program benefits the participants and the administrators. "The people in the program have no idea how much they have enriched my life and the lives of the others in the program," Frenger said. Frenger lives in Holt with her husband, Greg a Sargeant with the Meridian Township Police Departmetn and their two children, Bobby, eight and Kathryn, nine. She took over her duties as Court Administrator in Eaton County on December 10th. Published: Thu, Dec 17, 2009

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