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DAILY H ER A L D www.heraldextra.com

Court
Continued from Al
Court, mental health court is
an opportunity for those who
take a plea in abeyance to
receive treatment for mental
issues and to essentially
prove to the courts that after
treatment, they are mentally
able to function without
performing crimes again.
A plea in abeyance is an
agreement between the
defendant and the court
that the court will dismiss
charges should criteria be
met. In this case, Romney
said defendants will receive
treatment, counseling,
therapy and participate in biweekly meetings with other
participants in the mental
health court.
"It's really inspiring;'
Romney said. "It's nice to see
them have such a good relationship with us."
Provo is unique in that it
is one of few cities in Utah to
have its own mental health
court. In fact, it may be the
only mental health court in a
city justice court in the state,
Romney said. He said the
Provo community benefits
greatly from having its own
mental health court.
The big difference between
the Justice Court mental
health court and the District
Court mental health court
is, according to Romney,
early treatment. If the crime
isn't severe enough and it
occurs within Provo, then it's
handled by the city mental
health court. But if it's more
severe or if it occurs outside
of Provo, then Judge Fred
Howard and the Fourth District mental health court take
care of it.
On first glance, mental
health court sounds like it
would be filled with people
who have severe mental
issues such as schizophrenia
or paranoia. But most of the
time, the mental health issue
in question is somewhat
less severe, such as bipolar disorder.
"The term might suggest
they are incompetent and
that they are a serious risk
to our community," Howard
said. "These are people
who suffer some mental
handicap, but their mental
deficiency is manageable
if given the right resources
and tools, which the court is
designed to provide."
At a typical mental health
proceeding, defendants
appear before the judge
and report on their therapy
progress. If participants
miss therapy or relapse,
there are possibilities of
disciplinary action, ranging
anywhere from writing a
formal essay to serving a few
days in jail.
"For folks in mental
health court, it's not an easy
way out;' said Dr. Juergen
Korbanka, executive director
of Wasatch Mental Health.
"It's actually a longer intervention than what their
sentence may have been."
But for those who do succeed, about 80 percent of
the participants according
to Korbanka, the judges and

all in attendance applaud

the success of the defendants as they graduate from
mental court and their
charges are expunged.
"Somebody who's a
graduate is more likely to be
compliant to therapy in the
future," he said.
Korbanka has been working with the Provo mental
health court since its
inception in 2004. He said
mental health court has had
a tremendous success in
the past decade in treating
defendants and preventing
criminals from relapsing.
According to data collected from Wasatch Mental
Health, the Utah County Jail
has had 61 percent fewer jail
bed days since the mental
health court has been in
place in both the district
and the city. Additionally,
the average cost of providing inmates with a bed has
dropped from $102,753 to
well under $40,000, meaning less money needed to go
to the jail.
Korbanka said he can't
jump to conclusions and say
the dramatic decreases are
resulting directly from mental health court.
"But the numbers don't
lie," he said.
Howard has been
impressed given the short
time the mental health court
has been in Provo and in
the district.
"It's a positive reflection
of our community and our
judicial system in trying to
make efforts to look to other
resources ... to respond
to community problems,
instead of simply sanctioning a person with a jail
term," he said. "We're trying
to provide other resources
that will help them get out
of the cycle."
Howard agreed with
Korbanka that the statistics
are a clear indication that
something is working with
respect to the success of the
mental health court.
The idea, in his view, is an
innovative way to help fight
criminal issues.
"To the extent we can do
this, this is a great advancement," he said.
Romney said he wanted to
make sure attorneys and the
public as a whole are aware
the mental health court is a
viable option for defendants
in the district, but especially
in Provo.
"It works;' he said. "It
exists and it works."
Korbanka hopes the success seen in the mental
health courts will continue in the future as the
program continues in the
legal system.
"It's a win-win-win;'
he said. "It's better for the
individual, it's better for
the community because the
community's safer, and it's
better for the criminal justice
system because they're not
resurfacing. "
, Kurt Hanson is the Breaking
News and Courts reporter for
the Daily Herald. He can be
reached at (801) 344-2560 or
khanson@heraldextra. corn.
Follow him on Twitter: @
hansonherald.

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-2

NATACHA PISARENKO, Associated Press

Wooden arrows show the distances to various cities near Chile's Escudero station on King George Island, Antarctica, on Jan. 20.

Thousands of scientists come to Antarctica for research.

Antarctica holds key to mankind's future

Earth's wildest, most desolate continent
holds clues to humans' past and future
Luis Andres Henao and
Seth Borenstein
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DECEPTION ISLAND,
Antarctica Earth's past,
present and future come
together here on the northern
peninsula of Antarctica, the
wildest, most desolate and
mysterious of its continents.
Clues to answering humanity's most basic questions
are locked in this continental
freezer the size of the United
States and half of Canada:
Where did we come from?
Are we alone in the universe?
What's the fate of our warming planet?
The first explorers set foot
in Antarctica 194 years ago
hunting 19th century riches
of whale and seal oil and fur,
turning tides red with blood.
Since then, the fist-shaped
continent has proven a treasure chest for scientists trying
to determine everything from
the creation of the cosmos to
how high seas will rise with
global warming.
"It's a window out to the
universe and in time," said
Kelly Falkner, polar program
chief for the U.S. National Science Foundation.
For a dozen days in January,
in the middle of the chilly Antarctic summer, The Associated

to fall on summer days.

While tourists come to
Antarctica for its beauty and
remoteness, scientists are all
business. What they find could
Press followed scientists from affect the lives of people thoudifferent fields searching for
sands of miles away; if experts
alien-like creatures, hints of
are right, and the West Antarcpollution trapped in ancient
tic ice sheet has started meltice, leftovers from the Big
ing irreversibly, what happens
Bang, biological quirks that
here will determine if cities
potentially could lead to betsuch as Miami, New York, New
ter medical treatments, and
Orleans, Guangzhou, Mumbai,
perhaps most of all, signs of
London and Osaka will have to
unstoppable melting. The
regularly battle flooding from
journey on a Chilean navy
rising seas.
ship along the South Shetland
Antarctica "is big and it's
islands and vulnerable Antchanging and it affects the
arctic Peninsula, which juts
rest of the planet and we can't
off the continent like a broken afford to ignore what's going
pinky finger, logged 833 miles
on down there," said David
and allowing the AP team a
Vaughan, science director of
firsthand look at part of this
the British Antarctic Survey.
vital continent.
Often, scientists find something other than what they
Antarctica conjures up
images of quiet mountains and were looking for. Last year
white plateaus, but the coldest, researchers calculated that ice
driest and remotest continent on the western side of the conis far from dormant. About 98 tinent was melting faster than
percent of it is covered by ice,
expected. Last month, scienand that ice is constantly mov- tists researching vital geology
ing. Temperatures can range
in that melting were looking a
half mile under the ice in pitch
from above zero in the South
Shetlands and Antarctic Pendark and found a surprise: fish
insula to the unbearable frozen a half foot long and shrimplands near the South Pole. As
like creatures swimming by
an active volcano, Deception
their cameras.
Island is a pot of extreme conGeologists are entranced
ditions. There are spots where by Antarctica's secrets. On a
the sea boils at 212 degrees
recent scientific expedition led
Fahrenheit, while in others it
by Chile's Antarctic Institute,
can be freezing at below 32.
Richard Spikings, a research
And while the sun rarely shines geologist at the University of
on the long, dark Antarctic
Geneva, wielded a large hamwinters, nighttime never seems mer to collect rock samples in

Foster

will help eliminate concerns

over siblings being split up.
"I would say I'd rather take
Continued from Al
a small step than a big one.
Let's see how that works."
by foster parents about
This change would also
increasing the number of
save taxpayers money
children one family may take
by reducing the number of foster families in
in. Many of these foster parneed of funding. Still,
ents had the capacity to take
while the bill allows
on more children, said Daw,
for more children in a
but restrictions wouldn't
allow it. One of the reasons
household, the priorfor the change is the necesity of not putting
too many children
sity that sibling groups be
in a single home
broken up to comply with
current standards.
remains. The state
Daw said he believes the bill wants to preserve

11 iTT LY2J
'1 J1 IA ;1'0'11.1E:4) b YIJIM J
: 4

A lot of bad things happen in the world, so there are a lot of bad
things covered in the news. But there are also a lot of good things
happening in the worldespecially in our communityso when
I write, it is those good things I strive to show.

Keri Stevens, ommunity & Business Reporter

a family setting for foster

children and avoid a group
home atmosphere.
This concern was raised
by Senator Allen Christensen, R- Ogden, who said
people may be
concerned the
change could
"[open] the
doors for people
trying to stuff
their doors with
foster kids
to make
money."
Daw responded

the South Shetlands and the

Antarctic Peninsula. Curious
members of a penguin colony
on Cape Legoupil watched as
he pounded on slabs of black
granite and diorite rising out
of the southern ocean. By the
end of the two-week trip, his
colleagues had jokingly begun
calling him "Thor."
"To understand many
aspects in the diversity of animals and plants it's important
to understand when continents
disassembled," Spikings said.
"So we're also learning about
the real antiquity of the Earth
and how [continents] were
configured together a billion
years ago, half a billion years
ago, 300 million years ago," he
said, adding that the insights
will help him understand Antarctica's key role in the jigsaw
of ancient super continents.
With names like Rodinia,
Gondwana and Pangaea, scientists believe they were significant landmasses in Earth's
history and were periodically
joined together through the
movement of plates.
Because there is no local
industry, any pollution captured in the pristine ice and
snow is from chemicals that
traveled from afar, such as
low levels of lead found in
ice until it was phased out of
gasoline, or radiation levels
found from above-ground
nuclear tests thousands of
miles away and decades ago by
the U.S. and the Soviet Union,
Vaughan said.

that not only does DCFS

closely monitor families to
prevent this from happening,
foster parents normally lose
money rather than profit.
"For the amount that we
pay foster parents for taking care of these kids, I can
guarantee there is no moneymaking operations going on
out there;' Christensen said.
"Unless they don't clothe
them, or feed them, or send
them to school, or don't do
anything with them but lock
them in their bedroom."
Crissy Watson is one of
Daw's constituent foster
parents. In her eight years
of foster parenting, she has
taken in 138 kids. Her concern
is for the teenagers in foster
care according to Watson,
only about 20 percent of
foster parents prefer to take
in teenagers. This bill should
offer more options for older
foster children who have
younger siblings.
Residential facilities and
private group homes cost
the state significantly more
than foster care placements
with families.
"It saves the state a lot
of money;' said Watson. "I
feel really strongly that kids
should be in a family environment whenever possible, and
if we've got families that are
willing, that are able, that are
capable, then why not just
one more?"
, Haley Sotelo is a Brigham

Send me your tips and stories. HERALDEXTRA.COM/SUBMIT

Young University student

journalist covering the Utah
Legislature for Capital
West News.