NONVIOLENT DRUG SUSPECTS: PROMISING IDEA

Durham's court system has a commendable history of trying different
alternatives to jail time. Unfortunately, reality also has a way of
derailing good intentions.

For example, because of high costs and broken equipment, Durham can
no longer use electronic house arrest for some suspects awaiting
trial. And Durham's domestic-violence court, an effort to expedite
these cases and steer offenders into treatment, fell victim to this
year's state budget crunch.

On the other hand, after a shaky start, drug court, which steers
low-level drug offenders into treatment as an alternative to jail
time, now looks as if it might fulfill some of its considerable
potential. A similar effort now in the works also could steer more of
Durham's low-level offenders into treatment sooner.

Court officials want to offer treatment evaluations to nonviolent
drug offenders after they are arrested, rather than waiting until
after a conviction, as is current practice. Suspects who agree to an
evaluation would receive bail bonds low enough to allow them to get
out of jail.

The details of this plan are not yet in stone, and court officials
and attorneys have raised some concerns. The agency that would
conduct the treatment evaluations - Treatment Alternatives to Street
Crime - is already operating at capacity and has a waiting list. The
Mental Health Adult Substance Abuse Program, which would treat these
offenders, also is stretched thin.

Attorneys have raised questions about due process - whether this
program would amount to coercion of defendants, and whether any
disclosures made during an evaluation could be used against them. To
his credit, District Attorney Jim Hardin Jr. has pledged that
information obtained during a pretrial evaluation will not be used in
court.

All of this questioning during the proposal stage is a good sign: It
may produce a more effective program that avoids the ill fate of
similar alternative-to-jail efforts. Hardin estimates that 80 percent
of crimes have a drug-abuse component. A well-run program that can
help people escape this cycle of self-destruction is worthy of all
the support it can get.