Grant allows Westmoreland County to expand drug court
The Westmoreland County commissioners voted to accept $50,712 in grant funding to expand the county’s drug court program.
While the move doesn’t expand the number of drug court participants per year, the grant, from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, does expand the testing and monitoring capabilities of the program, said Commissioner Ted Kopas.
Kopas said that will “make participants more successful in recovery.”
Commissioner Gina Cerilli added that any time grant money can be used to improve the existing program that’s a bonus.
“We are always interested in ways we can expand drug court,” she said.
Commissioner Charles Anderson echoed his fellow commissioners’ thoughts.
“It’s a big positive,” he said. “We need to continue pushing to increase our resources and this is doing that. It’s money well spent.”
The mission of Westmoreland County Drug Treatment Court is to rehabilitate individuals to become productive members of our community through a clean and sober lifestyle thereby enhancing public safety, decreasing substance abuse and reducing recidivism through a collaborative program of intensive judicial oversight, court supervision and treatment.