TREATMENT, NOT PRISON

Planned Chatham County Drug Court Wants To Stop Revolving Door

Drugs account for more than a third of felony cases in Chatham Conty
Superior Court -- a real drag on the system. Many of those cases are repeat
offenders, often fresh from incarceration on prior drug offenses.

To deal with the problem, local judges likely will adopt a concept called a
drug court -- a means of treating the person while removing the criminal.

"Our courts have been ill-equipped to handle the revolving door of
offenders who, upon release from incarceration, re-offend because they
remain drug addicted," said Chatham Superior Court Judge James Bass Jr.,
who would handle the court here.

Bass, who volunteered for the post, eventually will handle all drug cases.
In return, his fellow judges will adjust cases so he does not become
overwhelmed.

"Unfortunately, traditional forms of punishment have not been successful in
modifying the behavior of those who are addicted," Bass said.

To alter that tradition, drug courts designed to treat the addiction rather
than throw away the person have sprung up, first in Miami in 1989. Today
nationwide there are about 500 such courts.

Drug courts are in place in Brunswick, Atlanta, Macon, and Dublin and are
planned for Gainesville and Dalton.

"Effective treatment along with close judicial supervision has been
successful in preventing drug relapse and recidivism in those courts where
the drug court model has been employed,' Bass said.

In the Brunswick area, Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams has overseen a
drug court for two years.

Williams, a Superior Court judge for 11 years, is one of four judges
covering a five-county circuit. She was approached by Dr. Conway Hunter
from the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 1994 with the idea of a
drug court. Her fellow judges were not immediately interested.

But in 1996 then-Superior Court Chief Judge A. Blenn Taylor, who was
handling the lion's share of criminal cases in Glynn County, found himself
inundated with addiction-related crime.

" 'This is unbelievable,' " Williams said Taylor told her. "Everything he
was seeing had an addiction component. We keep sentencing these people and
they keep coming back to us. We just recycle these people."

In January 1996 she was handed the task of starting a drug court which
began operating in November 1998.

"Some judges are case-management oriented and some others are more
concerned with the human component," she said. "The nicest thing about the
drug court is it deals with both. I started it because of the human component.

"The reason we keep seeing these people is because the addiction is not
being addressed."

She estimated that at least 75 percent of the criminal caseload in Glynn
County is drug-related in some fashion. "It's probably higher than that.
It's just not recognized."

Often a case will not start out as being drug-related, but upon questioning
of the offender it will become evident drugs were in some way involved.
"Sometimes we don't recognize how much it is really there," Williams said.

"We used to have jury trials once a month for drug cases. Now we have it
every other month. I'm not saying that people are not using drugs, but the
way we are taking care of them, we are not seeing the same people coming
back and coming back and coming back."

Only 15 of the 200 offenders to enter the program had flunked out.

"What I've done is increase the penalties for having a drug charge and the
amount of money it takes to get out on bond if you have a drug charge,"
Williams said.

"We have a lot of components in our drug-treatment program not directly
attributable to drug use."

Those in the program must obtain a high school diploma or equivalent, be
fully employed and at the end of their program and donate 10 hours per
month to a community charity. They must complete a treatment regimen and be
clean and sober for at least 12 months or they start all over again.

If they want to stay beyond the two-year period they can "if they're trying
to work it out," she said. "I just don't believe that you thrown these
people away if they're sincerely trying to work it out."

Danny DeLoach, court administrator for Chatham County and the First
Judicial District which includes Glynn County, is acting as interim project
director. Once Chatham County adopts the program, it will be run out of
DeLoach's office by a full-time program director.

"It will take some pressure off the normal system," DeLoach said. Of the
970 pending cases through October, 36.9 percent involved some type of
pending drug charge, DeLoach said.

"The program will start easy -- initial cases will be restricted to
first-time possession cases. Later it will address all drug-related cases."

But, DeLoach said, participants must be "somebody who is in need of treatment."

"If Chatham County determines this is what we need, we intend to be up and
operating by November 2001."

Based on experiences elsewhere, Bass says the drug court may be the answer
here.

"Statistically, it looks like it works," Bass said. "It's better than we
traditionally have done."

Senior reporter Jan Skutch can be reached at 652-0336 or
jskutch@savannahnow.com

What's next:

An informational public meeting to discuss a Chatham County drug court will
be held from 2-4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at the Georgia Continuing
Education Center, 305 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Georgia Supreme Court
Chief Justice Robert Benham and Amanda Williams, a Superior Court judge
from Brunswick, will be featured speakers. The public is invited to discuss
what a drug court is and whether one is needed here.

What is a drug court:

A drug court offers people charged with drug-related offenses a two-year
intensive drug treatment program including counseling, drug screening and
such efforts as education and job training to reverse addictive behavior.
In exchange, the offender has the charge dismissed upon successful
completion of the program.

Here's how it works:

1. A person arrested on drug-related offenses is screened shortly after
arrest for possible inclusion in the program. Others may come on
recommendation of the District Attorney's office, the gatekeeper for the
program, or the offender's attorney.

2. If accepted by the drug-court judge, the person will be granted a bond
by that judge. The person must be suitable for treatment for his or her
dependency.

3. In return, each must agree to drug counseling, complete a General
Educational Development test, get a job and perform community service and
submit to a weekly drug screen.

4. The program will include marrying the treatment expertise of local
mental health and education providers from agencies such as the
Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools, Union Mission Inc., Recovery Place,
Memorial Health, Georgia Regional Hospital, the Chatham County Health
Department and Gateway Mental Health Center.

5. The offender must meet with the judge weekly to determine his or her
progress. Those sessions are in open court and attended by each offender in
the program.

6. If the offender completes the program, his or her charge will be dismissed.

7. Failure to comply will result in sanctions -- jail for a set period --
or dismissal from the program. This can occur at any point in the process
and, if that occurs, the offender will be prosecuted like anyone else.

Who will pay for the court?

* An initial planning grant of $99,000 from the Council of Superior Court
Judges and the Georgia Supreme Court will set up the program.

* A $500,000 U.S. Justice Department grant will be applied for by Feb. 26
with a 25 percent match, not necessarily a cash match, from the city of
Savannah and Chatham County. Additional grants could be available after the
initial two-year period.

* Additional funds would be sought from private and corporate donations.

The payback:

* Individuals can be saved from addictive behavior and become productive
members of society.

* Taxpayers save money. National standards show that for every dollar spent
on the drug court, $14 would be saved by the system.

* Courts' dockets are relieved of the drag of repeat drug offenders who now
burden caseloads.