(Havre) – Recently, the 12th Judicial District was awarded state funding through the latest Montana Legislative session.
District Court Judge Kaydee Snipes Ruiz spoke with New Media Broadcasters, on how that funding will help the court.
“Until this point, we’ve been in a position where every year I’ve had to apply for grant funding with the hope that we would continue to have our program. We’re in a position where we’re screening folks and we cannot move forward unless we have funds. By being state funded, and I’m assuming we’ll be funded beyond the biennium, it’s my hope we’ll have some stability in that so we can move forward and make bigger plans for our court. What it really does is, if state funding is covering our basic needs for court, it gives us an opportunity to maybe apply for some grant funding for other things. So, things that we’ve talked about are kind of on our dream or our wish list is having some stable housing, some sober housing for our participants, being able to help out with transportation issues. Things that are outside of our reach, that are really auxiliary services.”-Snipes-Ruiz
