DRUG COURTS DO GOOD WORK

Mr. Kalange, in response to your letter of May 28:

You are correct in your analysis of the current "front-end
rehabilitation strategies (programs)" that do not work and end up
throwing the addict into relapse and back into the court system.

Dismissing the drug court as "frivolous" is a jump in the wrong
direction. The drug courts in and of themselves do not "stop
addiction," nor do they hope to correct morality. However, working
with drug and alcohol treatment programs, the pilot drug courts
nationally have shown a reduction in recidivism. When you consider
the rise in the recidivism rate from 17 percent in 1974 to 67 percent
in 1999 and the millions of dollars that had been spent on programs
that have not worked, seeing a reduction in the rate of recidivism is
meaningful.

But we must know our target audience for any program to be
successful. With 80 percent of those in drug and alcohol treatment
being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and
learning disabilities, the rehabilitation drug program must be
modified to address the learning styles and the behavior clusters of
the addict-offender. Until the November 2000 founding of Life
Challenges Inc. in Twin Falls, there were no formal
rehabilitation-treatment programs that targeted this audience. (At 80
percent, this is a rather large audience that has been overlooked.)
As a result, most offenders, after going through as many as five
different programs, continue to violate. The offender, 80 percent of
the time, is not able to understand, process, apply, establish a
structure of self-discipline, see or change distorted
self-perceptions, or modify thinking and behavior strategies, as
taught in most core programs. Therefore, he fails or, more honestly,
the program fails.

The drug courts, with appropriate rehabilitation-treatment programs,
give the offender an opportunity to develop an individual relapse
prevention plan that in turn generates more personal responsibility
and accountability. The individual relapse prevention plan can be
altered as the need arises and allows room for growth and refocusing.
There is no magic program out there that will fix someone who doesn't
want to be fixed. But in my experience, most of the offenders do want
to change or improve but do not have the tools to be successful. Drug
courts are a step in the right direction for much needed correction
reform.

SHAWNA FULLER
Twin Falls

(Note: Shawna Fuller is president and developer of Life Challenges
Inc., a social program that teaches people who are on probation or
parole how to get out of the criminal justice system. It targets
those who have attention deficit disorders and behavior problems.)