COURT'S FOCUS WILL BE DRUGS

When their remorse is genuine, it can be a pitiful sight.

They wear orange jail jump suits, their hands are cuffed and their feet
shackled.

They are coming down from drug-induced highs.

Or maybe they just look that way because they haven't slept while thinking
about their problems.

They're wasted.

Now they're in the courtroom, standing before a judge and charged with a
drug crime. If they've hit bottom, this might be the day they acknowledge
they have a problem and seek help.

First, they face several court hearings. Months later, if they plead guilty
or are found guilty, they are referred for chemical dependency treatment.
By then they may be using again. Their jobs may be gone, their children
taken away. Perhaps all three.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Judge With A Plan

Sixth Judicial District Judge Carol Person wants to provide immediate help
by having a chemical dependency assessor in court to start working with
defendants the day they are charged.

Person is the driving force behind creating a drug court in Duluth, which
is expected to start up by late winter or spring. St. Louis County just
received a $104,270 implementation grant from the Minnesota Office of Drug
Policy to start a drug court here.

"I think anybody who is a drug addict, or an alcoholic, will tell you that
moment when they come to the realization that they need help is the key
moment for intervention," Person said. "The system needs to intervene at
that moment. The key thing about Drug Court is that we're going to get them
into a program right away." The principle behind drug court, Person said,
is that crimes cannot be prevented until the underlying problem of
addiction is addressed.

The judge said that 80 to 85 percent of the crimes she sees is related to
drug and alcohol addiction. The crimes are committed by people while under
the influence, or done in an attempt to get money to buy drugs. "We're not
getting to the root cause," she said.

Johnnie On The Spot

The drug court Person envisions -- like the two currently in Minnesota in
Hennepin and Ramsey counties -- will provide a chemical dependency
assessment, supervision by the probation department, frequent unscheduled
drug testing and meetings with the judge.

Person will ask the drug offenders at those meetings if they still have
jobs, how their families are, are they supporting their kids, do they have
a safe place to live?

"Kind of a holistic approach to give them the best shot at beating the
addiction," Person said.

"We'll immediately know if they're using, and if they're using we'll assign
consequences which could include community service work, tough physical
labor, jail time. And then if they're interested in committing to the
program and saying, 'That was a relapse and I want to get straight,'
they'll go back into more intensive treatment."

Person is attending a weeklong training course at the Judicial College in
Reno, Nev., starting Monday. Prosecutors, public defenders, chemical
dependency assessors and probation agents also will receive training,
Person said.

"We have lots of defendants who say they are serious about getting their
life together; this will really give them the opportunity to prove it,"
said Tom Roy, Arrowhead Regional Corrections chief probation officer. "They
will have to show a commitment to treatment. There are very few cracks to
slip through because of the intensive testing and intense scrutiny."

Billie Wurzel, chemical dependency mental health supervisor for southern
St. Louis County, will assign a chemical dependency assessor to attend the
arraignment hearing of a person accused of a drug crime.

Wurzel said that the assessor and the probation agent will team early in
the process.

"This will be a more unified system and the more programs that work
together the better it is for the individual," Wurzel said.

Critical Support

John DeSanto, head of the St. Louis County Attorney's criminal division,
and Duluth Police Chief Scott Lyons support the drug court.

"I always want to see people who are addicted to these drugs get off them
completely," DeSanto said. "That's a real positive thing for society and
the offender. We're interested in long-term positive effects."

"We're very much in the game," Lyons said. "We're not apprehensive or
skeptical yet. This gives us an opportunity to try something different to
see if it works."

DeSanto said it hasn't been determined how compliance with the drug court
program will affect an offender's sentence. Under current Minnesota law,
first-time drug-possession offenders are eligible for a diversion program
and can have the charge dismissed if they follow the conditions of their
probation, but that usually comes after several hearings and being found
guilty or pleading guilty.

How Others Do It

DeSanto and Lyons spent a day observing the Hennepin County drug court.

"Their drug court is very sensitive to early treatment of people addicted
to drugs; I saw that as a real plus," DeSanto said. "But another impression
I had is that they are too lenient on those who sell or traffic in drugs.
Sometimes they are dealt with just like possessors or users. One thing I
hope our drug court will follow is to not allow sellers into the program."

The most difficult initial step, Person said, is determining who is
eligible to be put into drug court.

"In my opinion, we wouldn't want any violent offenders in this program,"
Person said. "In my opinion, we would not want to put any kind of drug
dealers in the program"

Hennepin County has had a drug court since 1997. It handles 1,700 cases a year.

Dennis Miller, Hennepin County drug court coordinator, said there has been
a dramatic decrease in the likelihood that drug court defendants will use
illegal drugs after their engagement with the drug court. That's evidenced
by the drug testing results, he said.

"If we can rapidly engage with people, capitalizing on the arrest crisis,
the underlying assumption is that you've caught people when they've
bottomed out with their problem," Miller said. "You use that problem as a
springboard for intervention."

Person said she plans to preside over a regular court calendar and carve
out time to devote to the drug court.

Miller said the dedication of a judge is crucial to the program working.

"When we do surveys and ask people what really mattered in terms of getting
clean and sober, a connectedness to the judge usually emerges as the most
powerful ingredient," he said. "Sixty-seven percent said getting to meet
with the judge every two weeks was pivotal.

"You can't call yourself a drug court unless you have judicial supervision,
frequent drug testing, graduated sanctions and treatment."