Graduates leave mental health court with new life
James Carpenter got his diploma Tuesday night.
It's not one that will help him land a junior executive position at a Fortune 500 company. And it's not a ticket to a top-ranked law school.
It gives him something much better than that: hope.
The certificate Carpenter and six others that make up the first graduating class of McHenry County's Mental Health Court received stands for the hope that the illnesses that plagued them for years, strained their relationships, landed them in jails and derailed their promise can forever be things of the past.
"It's great to be through it, but I'm not going to change what I've been doing (through the court)," Carpenter said after a graduation ceremony attended by the county's legal and government leaders. "I'm still going to be doing everything I'm supposed to be doing and I'm still going to be working with the same people, now as a mentor for the program."
Carpenter, 29, was one of the first participants in the program, which began in April 2007 with the goal of helping nonviolent criminal offenders address the mental health issues that landed them in court. Including the seven graduates - one of whom was recognized posthumously Tuesday night - the court now has 30 members.
The court is an intense 18- to 24-month program in which participants undergo mandatory counseling, drug testing and treatment, all under the watchful eye of court officials, prosecutors and McHenry County Judge Charles Weech. Proponents say the court not only helps those battling mental illness gain back control of their lives, but benefits the community by reducing crime and the costs of arresting, incarcerating and prosecuting people who would be law-abiding citizens if not for their affliction.
Weech emceed Tuesday's ceremony and handed out graduation certificates, along with a coin he said should serve as a reminder to the graduates of what they had achieved.
"It's been remarkable to see the change in every one of them," he said. "Each month, even each day, we saw the growth in them."
For graduate Deborah Pepper, that growth became evident when the court allowed her to leave the state and spend two months on Mackinac Island concentrating on her work as an artist.
"I could have gotten into any kind of shenanigans I wanted and nobody would have known," said Pepper, who donated one of her paintings to the program Tuesday. "But I didn't want to live that life anymore.
"It's hard to accept compliments and people being positive because there's so much negativity from what we're going through," she said of Tuesday's ceremony. "It's a wonderful feeling."
There were plenty of compliments and positive feelings as well for the people who make the program happen: from Weech, who presides over the court, to the mental health counselors and lawyers who guide the participants, to State's Attorney Louis Bianchi, whose efforts were credited for getting the program off the ground.
"This program is a model of how government and organizations can come together to solve problems in the community," County Board Chairman Ken Koehler said.