MORE PLACES TURNING TO DRUG COURTS

Instead of Jail, Addicts Can Be Sentenced to Treatment Programs

Damon Fuseyamore vividly recalls smoking "my last nickel of crack" on
June 16, 1997, while sitting on the steps outside his New York City
residence. He said he owed loan sharks money and had been arrested
two weeks before "with six nickels of crack and a bunch of money."

He was charged with selling crack and was looking at two to seven
years in prison. But he had another option.

"I had a choice of doing jail time or changing my life and going
through treatment," he said. "If you have a choice between doing
two-to-seven or going through the program and going into treatment,
any smart person would take the program."

Fuseyamore, 45 and the father of a 10-year-old son, celebrated 10
years of sobriety in June and has been a mechanic for the New York
City Fire Department for six years, according to Dennis Reilly,
former director of the Brooklyn Treatment Court. Fuseyamore's story
is one of thousands touted by supporters of alternative drug courts.

The courts, which are multiplying across the USA, began 18 years ago
as an experiment to attack a growing crack cocaine epidemic in Miami.
They rely on treatment, rigorous supervision and accountability as a
way to help, for the most part, non-violent drug users rather than
sending them to prison.

There are now 2,016 drug courts in about 1,100 counties, according to
the National Drug Court Institute. That number, the institute says,
is up from 1,048 five years ago and is nearly 1,800 more than existed
10 years ago.

According to West Huddleston, CEO of the institute, a 2005 study --
the most recent available -- showed 70% of drug court participants
graduate from the program and reoffend at a rate of 17% on average,
compared with the 66% recidivism rate of drug offenders who do time in prison.

That study also showed the annual average cost of a drug court
participant is $3,500, compared with annual prison costs that range
from $13,000 to $44,000 per inmate, Huddleston said.

Alternative drug courts are funded by a combination of federal, state
and charitable dollars. There is $15.2 million for the Department of
Justice Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program in the 2008 budget
that awaits President Bush's signature. In addition, the federal
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has $10.2
million in the 2008 budget to add treatment beds within operational
drug courts.

Supporters say more is needed. "We're scratching the surface. I think
it's critical that a drug court is in every county in America," said
Huddleston, who estimates that 120,000 people are served annually by
drug court alternatives, but potentially 4 million more people could
benefit by such programs. The program is mocked by some as adult day
care or handholding for addicts, Huddleston said.

Eric Miller, an assistant professor of law at Saint Louis University
is among the unconvinced. He said the drug court program takes away
the adversarial design and uses the judge to engage the defendant in
a 12-step-style program.

"That's not what judges do," he said.

Miller questions whether there is enough thought to weeding out the
people the drug court doesn't suit.

"A lot of thought has to be given to the types of people it best
works for," he said. "I'm not saying it doesn't work at all. But I
think there needs to be more thought about who it works for."

Stearns County (Minn.) Attorney Janelle Kendall admits she was
skeptical about drug courts.

"Our drug court was certainly not the prosecutors' idea," she said.
"It still isn't for violent offenders. ... What this approach seems
to reach is what's left of the humanity of the drug addict."

Among the areas of growth:

Missouri, which had eight drug courts in 1998, has added 100 courts
since then, according to Ann Wilson, coordinator of Missouri's drug
courts. Missouri has more drug courts per capita than any state and
as of Sept. 1 boasted 108 operational drug court programs, Wilson
said. Of those, 75 are adult programs, 19 are for juveniles and 14
are family programs.

New York, which has a drug court in each of its 62 counties and has
integrated its funding into its overall judicial budget, according to
Drug Court Institute research.

Oklahoma, where a Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse
Services report shows that from July 2005 to July 2006, the most
recent period for which data was available, prison population
expansion was slowed by 2,300 inmates because those offenders were
admitted into drug court. The report shows that there are 52 drug
courts in 59 counties. It lists the annual cost for a drug court
participant as $5,000, compared with at least $16,000 annually for a
prison inmate.

Florida, where the first drug court was created in 1989, now has more
than 109 active drug courts and six more in the works, according to
Jennifer Grandal, court operations consultant in the office of state
courts administrator.