DRUG COURT SUCCESS

Good Programs Need Standards To Prove Their Worth

Jefferson County District Judge O.L. "Pete" Johnson, who runs Jefferson
County's drug court, has plenty of success stories to tell.

About 950 people have graduated his program since it started on Jan. 1,
1996. One study, conducted in 1999, showed that about 13 percent of drug
court graduates got into trouble again within two years of completing the
program, compared to 50 percent or 60 percent of all convicts. More than
$1.24 million in fees have been collected over the years from drug court
offenders, helping to pay for the program.

But Johnson will be among the first to admit that there must be some way to
track the success of the many drug courts across the nation including his
own and one run by District Judge Eric Fancher in Bessemer so there's some
way to know what's working and what's not.

A federal General Accounting Office review this week reported that the
government has no way to really review the success or failure of 560 of the
800 drug courts in the country. More than $217 million in federal grants
has gone to drug court programs, including those in Jefferson County.

Johnson said his drug court doesn't receive federal support any longer.
Instead, the court is 60 percent to 65 percent self-supporting, and the
remainder of the funding comes from the city and county and from programs
such as UAB's Treatment Alternatives to Street Crimes program.

Anecdotally, Johnson and Fancher's programs are a success. They'd likely do
well under whatever objective criteria the Justice Department develops.

Certainly, with jail crowding a continual problem, there must be
alternatives to simply arresting somebody for drug use and throwing them in
prison.

Drug court's goal is simple: Get people off drugs. Nearly two-thirds of the
people charged with felonies in Jefferson County test positive for drug
use. Only nonviolent offenders are eligible for drug court, and offenders
who are charged with trafficking drugs are excluded, along with anybody
arrested with guns in their possession.

Once an offender is accepted into drug court, he or she pleads guilty to
what they have been charged with, agree to pay a $1,500 fee and submit to
random drug tests. Those who complete the program have no jail time or
criminal record and, presumably, they become productive members of society.

That's what the government wants to track. Johnson believes all drug courts
should supply certain information. Such as:

How many offenders are accepted, how many are rejected and why.

The graduation rate and the number who fail.

Some uniform standard for recidivism rates those who get into trouble once
they've completed the program successfully.

"Drugs cause crimes," Johnson said. "We need to know anything that would
indicate that they haven't changed."

The Justice Department is developing ways to track drug court results, and
it should call on judges such as Johnson to help set standards.

The better programs should be an example for others to follow. The trick is
knowing how to determine which are the better ones.