Battle Ground Municipal Court is working to become the latest in the area with a community court program aimed at connecting low-level, repeat offenders with mental health treatment, housing assistance, licensing services and other resources.
The Battle Ground City Council approved funding for a court clerk, who will oversee the program, with the city’s 2025 budget. Officials interviewed applicants for the clerk position and hope to appoint someone soon, city spokeswoman Alisha Smith said. She said the city aims to have the program operational by June.
Court officials say about 10 percent of those who come through the municipal court would be eligible for community court, but those people account for about 35 percent of local police contacts. They said they visited Vancouver’s program and were impressed by its success.
“We call them frequent flyers, and it’s not to be joking or demeaning to them, it just means that we see them all the time,” Municipal Court Judge Andrew Wheeler told the Battle Ground City Council during a December presentation. “I don’t need to ask their name and date of birth because I’ve memorized it. That’s who we need assistance with.”
City Prosecutor Jill Karmy said only those accused of certain offenses would qualify, like those facing driving while suspended, criminal trespass and failure to appear for traffic violations. The aim is to have service providers interrupt common excuses for missing treatment or not completing court-ordered tasks.
“Being in north county, the goal here is to give them the same resources here that they would also have if this offense has occurred in Vancouver,” Karmy said.
She said while the program hopes to reduce recidivism, it also allows her, as the city’s only prosecutor, to focus her attention on the cases that need it, like those accused of domestic violence crimes or DUI offenses.
Wheeler said starting a Battle Ground Community Court means bringing the resources to people in the northern part of the county, instead of relying on people to find their way to the services in Vancouver and surrounding areas.
“It’s not that we don’t have homeless people. It’s not that we don’t have people that are transitioning from drug and alcohol problems. It’s not that it doesn’t exist here,” Wheeler said. “It’s just not here where it’s tangible and can be touched and reached out by the people who need it most. And community court can bring that here.”
Wheeler shared examples of people he’s encountered during his time on the bench who would’ve benefited from local community court services. He described one man whom police had frequent contact with and had about a dozen cases through municipal court. He said the man was struggling with mental illness, but officials were unable to get him to engage with treatment services.
“We didn’t have a mechanism for this gentleman,” Wheeler said. “Certainly, you could say, ‘Judge, your mechanism was to throw him in jail.’ We did that a couple times. But, he would be back on the streets and would get off the medications, and we’d be back right in the same circumstances. And now, instead of 12 files, I have 14 files and seven probation violations.”
Wheeler said officials were eventually able to get the man enrolled in the county’s mental health court. The man received services through that program, and Wheeler said he has not returned to Battle Ground Municipal Court since late 2021. That also saves local law enforcement the time and resources they’d been devoting to responding to calls about the man, he said.
“A lot of the things that I’m talking about to people of our abilities and people of our socioeconomic status seem easy,” Wheeler told the council. “Get yourself some mental health treatment. Give the VA a call. But to anyone of limited means trying to navigate a system like the (Veterans Affairs) or navigate a system like Columbia River Mental Health (Services), it is a mountain for people.”
The judge said those who don’t successfully complete community court will still be held accountable for their offenses through the traditional court paths. He also recognized the success rate is likely to be low in the beginning, but he anticipates within a few years word will get around about those who got housed, got sober and never returned to court.
