Author:
Mitchell
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Date Posted: Saturday, December 21 2002, 7:16:18 GMT ( - 8 )
[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 12/22/02]
OUR VIEW
Cobb's new drug court accepted its first case last week, a 19-year-old college student from Tifton arrested with a large amount of marijuana.
Referred as a first offender with strong family support and a low risk of abusing drugs again, the student will undergo 18 months of counseling, weekly court reviews and random drug tests. He will pay fees toward the $2,400 treatment program, and if he concludes the program successfully, charges may be dismissed.
Drug courts are gaining currency as an alternative to incarceration. They are both cheaper than jail and -- when they are well-run -- more effective because they emphasize treatment that may prevent future drug abuse.
Cobb's drug court was too late for the bank executive convicted recently of forging prescriptions for a painkiller addiction after painful back surgery.
"Even though he was a first offender, after his felony conviction he lost his job, his family lost their home, everything," says County Superior Court Administrator Skip Chesshire.
At least 60 percent of Cobb County's estimated 2,300 inmates are held on drug-related offenses, says Sheriff Bill Hutson. With jail space at a premium, and one in 32 adults in the country behind bars, on parole or probation, Hutson is one of numerous law enforcement officials who believe drug treatment is a necessary alternative to incarceration.
There are now nearly a thousand drug courts across the country; more than half were established in the past two years. Cobb's new drug court offers intense judicial oversight of drug treatment for nonviolent adult first offenders. It will accept riskier cases as it gains experience, Chesshire says.
As more jurisdictions open drug courts, it's crucial that they learn to run them well. Overall, drug treatment courts have a 70 percent retention rate of participants, and 73 percent retain or obtain employment, according to the National Drug Court Institute.
But success rates vary among different programs. The federal General Accounting Office reported this year that more information is needed: The Justice Department "continues to lack vital information that the Congress, public and other program stakeholders may need to determine the overall impact of federally funded drug court programs and to assess whether drug court programs are an effective use of federal funds," the GAO said.
Fulton County's drug court, with a million-dollar budget, is an example of a program that may need an overhaul. It has enrolled 1,063 participants since 1997, but only 227 have graduated, and 43 of those graduates have gotten into trouble with the law again.
By contrast, the Camden/Glynn County Drug Court, presided over by Brunswick Judicial Circuit Judge Amanda Williams, has been named a national model by the Justice Department. It operates on a $674,000 budget with 216 current participants.
Since the two-year treatment programs began, the Camden/Glynn court has graduated 88 participants while terminating another 99 for failure to follow the rules of the program; it reports only three felony rearrests of graduates. At a cost of $260 per month per participant (they're required to pay $1,000 toward their treatment), vs. incarceration costs of $45 per day, the results are an enormous improvement on the 50 percent recidivism rate for incarcerated inmates.
The state Department of Corrections is also expanding treatment options in its prisons. It mandates a course for inmates on substance abuse risk reduction; the department also has nearly 900 outpatient treatment slots for probationers and parolees.
The best option, of course, is to offer treatment to minor drug offenders before they graduate to crime's big leagues and the embrace of the Georgia Department of Corrections. Drug courts should get used to the idea that addiction is hard to beat; as long as offenders are making a sincere effort to stick to the rules, drug courts should accept them more than once.
For those drug courts struggling to serve all the offenders who need treatment, there are private services that could be used as backup. Why not sentence an offender to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or Narcotics Anonymous meetings?
While advocates of drug courts need to make sure their programs are well-run and taxpayers' money spent wisely, the spread of drug courts with an emphasis on treatment is good news. The possibility of redemption gives hope not just to offenders but also to society at large.
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