By AMY MILLER

amiller@tnonline.comCarbon County officials are looking at ways to improve on the criminal justice system and lower the number of repeat offenders being sentenced.On Friday morning, dozens of agencies gathered for the sixth annual Human Services Priority Brunch, formerly the Legislative Brunch, at Whispering Pines, Penn Forest Township Fire Company No. 1, to listen to the thoughts and suggestions Carbon County's judges face on the bench.In addition, Dennis Marion, deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, added some insight on the state level.Hosted by the Carbon County Interagency and Family Collaborative Board, Jamie Drake of Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission and Sheila Theodorou of Carbon-Monroe-Pike Mental Health/Developmental Services, outlined programs currently being implemented or investigated on the county prison level.Drake spoke about the new full-time drug counseling program implemented in the prison in January to help begin drug treatment while inmates are still incarcerated, and provide help at setting up treatment services once they are released.Over the three-month period, 34 inmates were served and have received or are receiving treatment.In addition, Theodorou spoke about the partnership with Blue Mountain Health System to provide stronger mental health services that is currently being discussed.Carbon County Judges Roger Nanovic, Steven Serfass and Joseph Matika spoke in a roundtable discussion with Marion.Drugs and solutionThe judges weighed in on a number of topics.They included the key issues that Carbon County courts face regarding the drug and alcohol program, the programs that the judges feel are needed in order to reduce recidivism, prevention programs that would be effective in reducing incarceration and crime in the county, and programs that the judges think would be good for re-entry initiatives."We recognize that there is a very significant drug problem in Carbon County," Nanovic said. "I think it is important to keep in mind that the problem is not confined to Carbon County. It's a statewide and national problem."He said that approximately 50 percent of the cases the judges see are drug-related and because of this, the key issues the courts face are having experts in the fields of mental health and drug and alcohol available to provide direction when the judges need assessments on what a proper sentence should be.Serfass and Matika echoed Nanovic's thoughts, saying that they are not experts in drug and alcohol and mental health treatments and services, so having someone who specializes in this complete an assessment and provide guidance would help better serve the defendants at sentencing."Many times we will make conditions in the sentence to follow the recommendations of a drug and alcohol or mental health evaluation," Matika said.He has started keeping track of the number of cases that go before him that have obvious drug and alcohol related problems."Close to 85 percent of the 400 to 500 cases of individuals who came before me had some semblance of a drug or alcohol problem," he said."It's disheartening when you have all these people coming before you because they have a problem and need help."Resources neededMarion said on the state level, a connection needs to be made between state and county officials to come up with strategies and set up resources that are available to counties for drug and alcohol or mental health services for the prison system.Nanovic said that a few years ago the judges traveled to Franklin County to see how drug cases are handled. Through that visit, they learned about day reporting centers, drug courts and assessments."Part of the need to attack the problem in the prison is it all starts in the prison," he said, noting that there is a need for the prison to do a good assessment of the people coming into the jail so that officials know what the prison population looks like who has drug problems, who has mental problems, or who is violent.Nanovic stressed the need for an assessment to be done to help solve the recidivism problem that Carbon County is seeing. That way, knowing the population will help determine what programs would help the county.He said the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency helps counties such as Carbon by using such an assessment to study the situation in the prison and offer suggestions on what should be done and what programs are needed to deal with the drug and alcohol population and reduce repeat offenders.Serfass commended the steps the county has already taken to help solve the recidivism problem."The new drug counseling program in the prison is a welcome addition," he said, noting that the coordination of many county agencies is what will help curb the growing problem."In past years, I heard the comment frequently that there are no programs available at the prison, so when we were incarcerating people we were essentially warehousing people instead of getting them assistance that they needed. Now we've taken that first step."The judges agreed that they are not 100 percent sure what programs are available in the county to help treat drug-addicted defendants and asked that agencies begin an open discussion to see if long-term solutions can be created."Treating a drug-addicted individual is a long-term process," Nanovic said, noting that programs such as the state's Intermediate Punishment program, which is available to drug-addicted people sentenced to state prison terms, is not used as often as it could be because the defendant must first request entry into the program.Matika concluded that to make a difference moving forward, the judges need more education about treatment options available to county residents, as well as programs that can be implemented on the court level.