Productive Program

DRUG COURT HELPS ABUSERS TURN THEIR LIVES AROUND

What value can be put on a program that helps a person lick a drug habit
and become productive? How important is it to keep cells in our jails and
prisons available for violent offenders instead of warehousing nonviolent
drug abusers?

Jefferson County District Judge Pete Johnson's drug court is not only a
chance for nonviolent drug offenders to clean up their acts and their
records, it also helps keep jail crowding down and turns somebody who would
be a drain on taxpayer-supported social services into somebody who helps
pay for them.

Entering its sixth year, Johnson's drug court has seen 839 people graduate
that's 839 people no longer a burden on state government or the court
system. Currently, there are 585 drug users in the program.

The goal of drug court is simple: Get people off drugs. With nearly
two-thirds of the people charged with felonies testing positive for drug
use, this is no small problem or opportunity.

Not every person arrested on drug offenses gets a shot at drug court,
however. Only nonviolent offenders are eligible, and defendants who appear
to sell or traffic in drugs are excluded from the program. Eliminated, too,
are those arrested with guns in their possession, or for any offense where
violence is involved.

Once accepted into drug court, defendants pay $1,500 or more to help cover
program costs, and they are subject to random drug tests. The first
positive test gets a defendant an overnight jail stay that he or she pays
for and subsequent positive tests are punished with longer jail terms or
expulsion from the program. Participants must get a job, perform community
service and, if they are high school dropouts, take classes toward a GED.

Of course, those who complete the program get two major rewards: no jail
and no criminal record. Plus, they presumably become productive members of
society.

Johnson's drug court has proved itself. Indeed, the participants themselves
pay for more than half the program's expenses. Including Johnson's court,
there are seven drug courts in the state. The program should be expanded to
every Alabama county so that nonviolent drug users are turned into
productive citizens, not warehoused at taxpayer expense.