LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS DRUG COURT FUNDING CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- A legislative committee agreed to sponsor a bill that would help create more drug courts in Wyoming. Drug courts are aimed at helping nonviolent drug offenders overcome addiction through intensive treatment and close monitoring and without prison or jail time. "This bill is really providing additional treatment to solve the problem," Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, said. Law enforcement officials have found drug courts are better at reducing recidivism, or repeat offenses, than jail sentences. Supporters also say drug courts are not adversarial because law enforcement, defense attorneys and prosecutors work together, and that the judge is more involved, meeting regularly with offenders. The Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee voted unanimously Friday to give the state Health Department $1.5 million to help counties, with support of up to $200,000 per year, to operate drug courts. Drug courts are now used in Lincoln, Sheridan and Uinta counties. Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Director Tom Pagel said about 45 percent of the people his agents arrest have been previously charged with drug involvement. The key, he said, is "breaking the cycle of substance abuse, which also breaks the cycle of criminal activity. In most drug courts, the recidivism rate is decreasing 50 to 80 percent." Drug courts provide useful treatment for those who cooperate, and for those who don't, "they get the hard time," Sen. Curt Meier, R-LaGrange, said. Under the proposal, counties would establish drug court management committees comprising a circuit court judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, monitor and representative of treatment providers. The state would establish a drug court panel of directors comprising the state departments of Health, Family Services and Corrections, along with the state public defender, the attorney general and other state officials. The state panel would oversee and provide funding for drug courts based on meeting minimum standards in the proposed law and rules to be developed by the Department of Health. The legislative panel also agreed to support a proposal to give the Health Department $300,000 to create a substance abuse control plan for prevention, early intervention, and treatment to reduce drug and alcohol abuse in Wyoming.
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