In fact, she co-founded the Judges’ Leadership Initiative, a professional association supporting cooperative mental health programs in the criminal justice system. Stratton asked VanDerKarr, a sitting Franklin County Municipal Court judge at the time, to start a mental health court for Franklin County. Columbus, Ohio’s capital and the nation’s 14th largest city, comprises most of Franklin County.
While VanDerKarr agreed, it took him more than 2 ½ years to convince a majority of his fellow Municipal Court judges to approve the idea. “Some were reluctant because they see it as social work, not law. However,” he says, “courts today involve law and social treatment.”
Franklin County’s Mental Health Program Docket was given jurisdiction over all misdemeanors, including OVIs, theft and criminal damaging. During VanDerKarr’s 20 years as a Municipal Court judge, countless drug users appeared before him, and he soon realized jail did not solve all of their problems.
Despite the efforts of the county’s Mental Health Program Docket, he still felt more could be done to appease the ever-increasing numbers of defendants whose criminal charges stemmed from drug and alcohol addictions.
From Mental Health to Fighting Addiction
In 2009, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, who has won every election for prosecutor since 1997, asked VanDerKarr to head the county’s newly formed drug court. In 2010, the county began a second drug court, this one aimed specifically for heroin addicts.
In Franklin County, Drug Court judges meet with defendants weekly to check their progress. Random drug tests are administered to participants, with a potential jail sentence awaiting those who fail.
VanDerKarr says there is often a strong correlation between mental health and the abuse of drugs. As head of the county’s mental health court, he found many instances where a defendant had a substance abuse problem but had not been analyzed for a mental health diagnosis, meaning they did not qualify for that court’s assistance.
That reality frustrated the judge. “I saw devastation, and the slow devastation of families, too,” he says. So, when that 2009 call came from O’Brien, VanDerKarr jumped at the opportunity to help fight his county’s burgeoning addiction problem.
“I knew if the prosecutor was involved, we could get funding from Columbus City Council and the (three) Franklin County Commissioners,” says VanDerKarr.
In early 2010, the drug epidemic was picking up steam. In 2017 alone, at least 520 people died of drug overdoses in Franklin County, a 47.3% increase over 2016. More than two-thirds of those ODs were related to fentanyl. In comparison, the Ohio Department of Health reports fentanyl-related, accidental overdose deaths in all of Ohio rose from 503 in 2014 to 1,155 in 2015.
In 2015, the nation’s substance abuse problem became an unwelcome intruder in VanDerKarr’s personal life when his 18-year-old stepson died of an accidental overdose. He admits the experience had him considering leaving the bench, but he stayed the course.
Taking the Battle Private
In January 2016, VanDerKarr’s professional life took a turn, although he stayed on the same path. He submitted his judicial resignation to Ohio Governor John Kasich to take the fight against drugs private. VanDerKarr created Livesback, a non-profit whose mission is to counsel courts as they establish and oversee drug courts.
“Our drug court was 70% successful with our opiate docket but I saw only one-fourth of courts in Ohio have drug courts,” he recalls.
While the numbers have improved somewhat, VanDerKarr says he thought businesses would be more generous in funding efforts such as Livesback. That’s because in 2017 upwards of $740 billion dollars in business was lost due to substance abuse disorders, lost wages and more, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
At this point, Livesback’s efforts have resulted in assisting the Municipal, Common Pleas and Juvenile court systems in Vinton County, Ohio establish drug courts. Vinton County, a poor county that is home to approximately 13,000 residents in Ohio Appalachian Country, has been hard hit by the drug epidemic. He expects those drug courts to be fully operational by September.
Before he created Livesback, VanDerKarr was the point man assisting Southern District of Ohio’s Federal division in establishing a drug court. He was also called in when Upper Arlington, a Columbus suburb, wanted to create one, too.
All in all, VanDerKarr says he is heartened by the strides made fighting the war against drug addiction in various locales in Ohio. While he’d like to see Livesback expand its reach outside the Buckeye State, he takes his victories one day at a time.
VanDerKarr has devoted his life to fighting the scourge of drug addiction and the problems inherent with its rampant use. Drug courts and programs like Livesback are "what restorative justice is all about. It’s treatment with accountability, not just treatment.”
In VanDerKarr’s mind, lawyers also play an important role in combatting the drug epidemic. “They need to know the options the judicial systems have available for their clients. They need to know that drug courts and mental health counseling exists that can help people stabilize their lives.”
Tami Kamin Meyer is an Ohio attorney and writer.