DRUG COURT TO START WORK IN COUNTY LATER THIS MONTH

BISBEE - Adult Drug Court will start operating in Cochise County on
Jan. 30, and officials hope it will help drug-abusing probationers
stay clean.

The program involves a combination of intensive substance abuse
treatment, close probation supervision and frequent court
appearances. Hearings will be held in the newly relocated Superior
Court Division 1 in Sierra Vista.

Judge Charles Irwin stands in his Division 1 Cochise County Superior
Court room in Sierra Vista Tuesday. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review)

Judge Charles Irwin, who presides over Division 1, said violent
offenders and drug dealers will not participate in the drug court.

"These are drug users who are cycling through the criminal justice
system and are going to be doing life on the installment plan
basically if we don't break the cycle. I think drug court will be a
good opportunity to break that addiction cycle," he said.

Irwin said the national model for the program has proven to be a
cost-effective alternative to traditional prosecutions.

The annual participative cost in the drug court program in the nation
is about $3,500, he said. In contrast, putting a drug offender in
prison costs $21,245 per year, he added, citing a figure from the
Department of Corrections.

And, he added, a drug user who gets out of prison has a 66 percent
chance of re-offending, while a drug court graduate only has a 17
percent chance of re-offending, according to the National Drug Court
Institute.

Adult Drug Court will be a coordinated effort of the Superior Court,
county attorney, defense bar, probation, law enforcement and
treatment providers, said Livingston Sutro, chief adult probation
officer for Cochise County Superior Court.

Sutro said the program is the product of more than 1 1/2 years of
planning. He said officials wanted to start the program in Sierra
Vista because of the methamphetamine problem.

Many meth addicts get probation supervision and treatment. But, he
added, those programs don't seem to be working well enough.

"We are hoping that the judicial involvement and the increased focus
on the individual and the individual's needs will help turn the tide
around a little bit," he said.

Hearings for drug court will be closed to the public for
confidentiality purposes. However, Sutro said, statistics on the
program's effectiveness will be maintained and reported periodically.