SOBER SPENDING

Drug And Sobriety Courts Have Proved Their Worth; State Should Increase Funding

In society's frustrating struggle to reduce the ravages of drug and
alcohol abuse, success stories are the exception. Anything that can
show a measure of accomplishment ought to be encouraged.

In Michigan, this would include drug court and sobriety court projects
under way in a number of counties, including Wayne and Oakland. Amid
declining state revenues, Gov. John Engler has proposed maintaining a
special state appropriation for them at $1.2 million in the fiscal
year that starts Oct. 1. The Legislature, evidently more impressed
than the governor with the success of these courts, wants to spend up
to $3 million.

Court officials say the governor's proposal would shrink existing
programs and preclude expansion, notably in Pontiac and Wayne and
Genesee Counties and into juvenile courts. These are exactly the kinds
of programs that should be expanded. They can show success and, given
the costs that incarceration, drunken driving and drug-related crimes
inflict on Michigan every day, it is penny wise and pound foolish for
the state not to do more of what's working. The money involved
wouldn't keep the state prison system open for a day.

In a nutshell, drug and sobriety courts use intense, daily supervision
of some nonviolent drug and alcohol offenders as an alternative to
packing them into overcrowded jails and prisons. The programs can
include months of daily, random testing to detect the use of alcohol
or drugs, mandatory therapy and participation in Alcoholics Anonymous,
Narcotics Anonymous or other such groups.

Last year, the number of drug courts in Michigan grew from eight to
23, as more judges saw the futility of 60-day jail sentences that do
nothing but increase the offender's hunger for a high. The courts that
are operating also have been able to demonstrate a substantial
reduction in repeat offenders; they are changing behavior.

Taxpayers benefit, too, because offenders accepted into drug or
sobriety court programs can usually manage to keep their jobs or are
required to secure 40-hour-a-week employment as a condition of
probation. In short, they remain taxpayers instead of a cost to taxpayers.

Of course, these programs take money, mostly for additional probation
officers. Typically, a drug court or sobriety court probation officer
supervises no more than 50 people. Officers in other courts might be
responsible for as many as 500 offenders.

In Michigan, only a penny of every public dollar consumed by drugs and
alcohol goes for the treatment of addicts, or the demand side of the
supply-and-demand equation. The rest is thrown into courts,
corrections and law enforcement, none of which can claim great success
at cutting into the supply side. According to a study by the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University,
Michigan spends the third least among the 50 states on treatment
programs, less than only Colorado and Mississippi.

The drug court money will be an issue Tuesday as key legislators meet
with the governor's budget crew to set spending targets. In a
$38-billion state budget, this is not a lot of money, but it has a
substantial return.

"It's certainly high on my list," said state Rep. Marc Shulman, R-West
Bloomfield, who will be in on the talks as chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee. "It's an excellent approach."

And it's working.