County Treatment Court and Participants Lauded

State Supreme Court Judge Joins in Recognition

LOCK HAVEN – The Clinton County Treatment Court and more recently Treatment/Veterans’ Court have been part of the community for better than three years and the program’s success was recognized this week by formal certification from the state.

The occasion was marked Monday with an accreditation ceremony at the Sons of Italy, program certifications presented by Christy Beane from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Present to join in the ceremony was state Supreme Court Judge Sallie Updyke Mundy.

Mundy lauded the local treatment committee headed by program director Judge Michael Salisbury. Other members include District Attorney David Strouse, David Goodwin, Shea Madden, Trish Gentzyel, Ginger Pizzuto, David Winkleman and Thom Rosamilia.

Also in attendance at the holiday recognition event were the 36 local residents benefitting from the treatment program since its inception in 2014. The treatment court has been described as an alternative approach to promote public safety and reduce recidivism in a cost-effective way by providing program enrollees with intensive court supervision and a comprehensive treatment program.

Judge Salisbury said the program so far has “changed 36 lives.” Judge Updyke Mundy told program enrollees that program overseers “want you to succeed; they want you to get better.” She called the specialty court “a people program to rehabilitate, (for you) to be contributing members of the community.”

Judge Updyke Mundy was effusive in her praise of the local treatment court, among the first to be established in the state. She told the local court and committee members they have been on the foreground and are responsible for the program’s success. She said their work is through a sense of community, “a thread that weaves the community together.”

The program was also marked by presentation of a $4,000 check from Dan Vilello representing the local Sons of Italy Lodge, the money earmarked for the West Branch Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission, an agency part of the court effort related to dealing with substance abuse offenses.

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