Marion County is winding down courts that keep people with mental illness and addiction out of jail and on the road to recovery. The reason: the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) cut a grant of roughly $600,000 that helped pay for drug, reentry and veterans courts. The IDOC must restore that money before more of these programs close.

Problem-solving courts offer a different path than a jail cell. Participants work with a case manager, a public defender and treatment providers. They check in with a judge, take regular drug tests, and get help with jobs, housing and transportation. People who finish can have their cases dismissed and cleared from their records, so one crisis doesn’t follow them to every job or apartment application.

The damage has already started. Marion County’s reentry and drug court has stopped taking new applicants. Its veterans and mental health courts could shut down by the end of 2027. And the loss reaches far past Indianapolis, since 60 or more of the state’s 92 counties run at least one of these courts.

For Daniel Higgs, the program made the difference. After a relapse sent him back to jail in 2025, he joined the court and was out in under two months. He says it feels like it saved his life. The courts are “empowering people like me to become a part of the solution,” Higgs told Mirror Indy.

Ray Casanova, Marion County’s chief public defender, says treatment courts are a more cost-effective way to handle these cases than locking people up. Cutting them saves little now and costs far more later.

Sign the petition to tell the Indiana Department of Correction to restore funding for problem-solving courts — before more people lose their chance to recover.