JUVENILE DRUG COURT

County Considering Juvenile Drug Court Team In Training To Help PW
Procure Juvenile Drug Court

Prince William's 31st Judicial District is training a 10-member team
to further plans of implementing a federally funded juvenile drug
court.

While the final decision whether to install the court is up to 31st
District Juvenile Court judges, the Federal Drug Court Training
Program will put the district at the top of the federal government's
priority list to receive funds in fiscal year 2003, which begins in
Oct. 2002.

``Getting into the court system is worse than getting into the
welfare system," said Prince William Supervisor Mary Hill, R-Coles,
who started the ball rolling with last summer's request for an
investigation into drug court possibilities. ``Once you're in the
juvenile justice system it's very difficult to work your way out. And
you're held to a higher standard than a person who hasn't been in
trouble. You're held under a microscope."

Drug courts, a specially designed court calendar, require an alliance
between courts, probation officers and substance abuse treatment
agencies.

Judges see participants in court frequently - as often as once a week
for treatment progress reports - and they hold the power to impose
sanctions for relapse and noncompliance. Probation officers perform
drug tests and supervise the program face to face, while substance
abuse clinicians provide treatment and mental health assessment.

The ultimate goal of the courts is to reduce recidivism and substance
abuse among nonviolent offenders and increasing the likelihood for
successful rehabilitation. The programs have become widely used over
the past several years but data regarding their success is still
preliminary.

Eleven drug courts are operational in Virginia and two are juvenile
only, including one in the 15th Judicial District, which encompasses
Stafford County. More than a dozen other courts are in the planning
stages.

As of May, there were 483 adult, 158 juvenile, 38 family and nine
combination drug courts throughout the United States, according to a
study by Steven Belenko with Columbia University's National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse.

``In many jurisdictions, drug courts have become the preferred
mechanism for linking drug or alcohol involved offenders to
community-based treatment and related clinical interventions,"
Belenko wrote in the study.

``Drug courts have achieved considerable local support and have
provided intensive, long-term treatment services to offenders with
long histories of drug use and criminal justice contacts, previous
treatment failures and high rates of health and social problems," he
continued.

The courts cost about $300,000 a year to run, 85 percent of which
comes from federal and state grants. And the expense of incarcerating
an offender is more than 10 times higher than substance abuse
treatment, according to Hill.

After Hill's request last summer, the 21-member Community Criminal
Justice Board took up the matter and created a subcommittee to
investigate the possibility of drug courts, said Christina Frank,
office of Criminal Justice Services director. The group met for five
months, took some field trips and earlier this year recommended
exploring the courts on a juvenile level.

Frank's office applied for a Federal Drug Court Planning Grant, the
application for which requires a 10-member team participate in a
yearlong training effort. The U.S. Department of Justice selected the
31st District to participate in three workshops over the next year,
culminating in possible federal funding.

But the district has yet to decide if the drug court will get the go-ahead.

``We haven't yet crossed that bridge," Frank said. ``But there's a
good opportunity. Now it's up to the court to launch it."

The training group includes the chief judge of the Juvenile and
Domestic Relations Court, a defense attorney, prosecutor, Community
Services Board therapist, police officer, juvenile probation officer,
citizen, court coordinator, school representative and research
analyst.

``I'm just hoping we can find other answers besides taking such a
hard line," Hill said. ``People need to be held accountable but they
also need to be treated fairly and their needs met. They need to get
the help they deserve. They need people to believe in them."