‘People’s lives transformed’ in drug court, parole officer tells Douglas County

Before she came to Douglas County, Shannon Bruegge, behavioral health parole officer, worked for eight years in Cass County, Mo., supervising clients with substance use disorders as part of a drug court.

“I saw people’s lives transformed,” she told Douglas County commissioners during their Wednesday work session on specialty courts.
Bruegge was hired with the 2017 launch of the county’s behavioral health court, which aims to reduce the number of people with serious mental illness in the Douglas County Jail and provide support to them. Now she and others in the county’s criminal justice system are pushing for another specialty court that would focus on helping those with substance use disorders.