A girl who allegedly used stolen grasp keys to raid mailboxes throughout Chicago and a person accused of breaking via an residence advanced wall to steal packages are celebrating “recent begins” as graduates of Cook dinner County’s Drug Remedy Court docket, in accordance with Chief Choose Timothy Evans.
Kalea Blanke, 35, as soon as described by prosecutors as a serial mail thief, admitted final 12 months to 6 burglaries in neighborhoods starting from Uptown to Wicker Park. Chicago police arrested her in a South Facet storage and located a U.S. Postal Service grasp key, often known as an arrow key, mendacity in plain sight. Officers additionally found a set of wrenches she allegedly filed into crude replicas of arrow keys.
Blanke’s thefts stretched throughout North Middle, Lincoln Park, the Loop, and different neighborhoods, the place prosecutors mentioned she used her keys to plunder locked mailboxes.
However in courtroom this month, the story was totally different. After years of habit, Blanke mentioned she has been sober for 2 years and now works as a counselor in the identical restoration program the place she as soon as sought therapy.
“I used to be given a second probability to get out of the authorized hassle I used to be in,” Blanke mentioned. “I take pleasure in being on the place the place I’m in the present day and serving to different individuals understand their strengths.”
Blanke is one in all six Drug Remedy Court docket graduates honored just lately on the Skokie Courthouse. Evans praised this system for turning individuals away from crime and towards stability.
“One in all our targets as a courtroom is to maneuver individuals away from felony exercise and allow them to change into productive and helpful residents in society,” Evans mentioned. “The issue-solving courts present individuals with a recent begin to stay a productive, blissful life.”
Arvin Basilio, 36, one other graduate, as soon as punched and kicked via a wall to succeed in a bundle room in a Rogers Park residence advanced after failing to pry open the door, prosecutors mentioned. Surveillance cameras captured his distinctive hand tattoos and confirmed him flattening his masks, particulars that helped police determine him.
Like Blanke, Basilio mentioned his crimes have been fueled by habit that started in his teenagers. He credit Drug Remedy Court docket with altering his life.
“If I hadn’t gone to drug courtroom, I’d be doing the identical factor,” he mentioned. “They gave me the motivation to get myself collectively.”
Basilio mentioned this system taught him to stay with therapy, keep sober, and construct stability.
“First, they need you to attend all of your conferences, get to your courtroom dates, drop clear [for drugs], then they need you to discover a job, hold the job, discover a steady house, keep sober. I’ve so much to lose. I’m not making an attempt to mess something up.”
Cook dinner County operates 20 problem-solving courts, together with divisions for veterans, psychological well being, and drug therapy. Judges say the packages enhance public security, scale back re-arrests, and get monetary savings whereas giving defendants an opportunity to rebuild their lives.
