DRUG COURT GETS SHAKY START

Statistics Don't Tell Whole Story, Wake Officials Say

RALEIGH -- Over the past decade, advocates of drug courts have sold the
program as the best way to stop drug-related crime.

The courts put drug addicts in intensive treatment instead of in prison.
But Wake County's version, the second longest-running in North Carolina and
the only one in the Triangle that has graduated participants, doesn't
appear to be working as well as supporters hoped.

Almost half of the first 25 graduates have been convicted of new crimes, a
recidivism rate similar to that of those treated behind bars.

Forty-four percent of the Wake Superior Court program's graduates in 1997
and 1998 committed crimes again, an analysis of court records shows. That
is higher than the 4 percent to 28 percent touted by other drug courts
nationally. And the success rate is far lower than in Mecklenburg County,
where the state's first drug court started and where officials say none of
their 20 Superior Court graduates have committed a felony or misdemeanor
since 1999.

"I'm disappointed to hear this," said Randy Monchick, who oversees North
Carolina's seven drug treatment courts. "What is most curious is the
apparent discrepancy between Mecklenburg's drug court and Wake's drug court."

Monchick and Wake officials say it's still too early to completely judge
the success of the drug court, especially based on such a small sample.
There is some indication that Wake's first class of participants had longer
criminal records than the people Mecklenburg accepted. Plus, Monchick says,
Mecklenburg officials had three years of experience running a District
Court drug court before starting a Superior Court program.

Wake officials also say success comes in small doses when targeting this
population of chronic abusers who commit felonies.

"If you find out 15 of those people have relapsed, I still don't think it
makes us a failure," said Bryan Collins, a Raleigh lawyer who represents
each drug court participant.

He counts it a success that one graduate overcame a heroin addiction,
turned her life around and gave birth to a healthy baby.

Wake Superior Court Judge Henry Barnette, who sees drug court participants
twice a month for progress reports, also believes the drug court is
working. "I think it has been successful in a lot of cases," he said. "I
think that makes it worthwhile."

The drug courts in Wake County Superior and District courts cost taxpayers
about $337,000 a year.

High Hopes

In 1989, Attorney General Janet Reno, then a local prosecutor, started the
nation's first drug court as an experiment in Dade County in Florida. It
drew the attention of prosecutors, judges and lawmakers in North Carolina
and elsewhere at a time when a debate was raging nationally over whether
prisons should be filled with nonviolent drug offenders.

Now there are more than 500 drug courts in operation and another 150 in the
planning stages in 48 states, according to the National Center for Drug
Court Professionals.

In 1996, Wake became only the second county in North Carolina to have a
drug court. Since then, Wake has added courts for District Court defendants
and juveniles.

Durham County started its District Court drug court program in November
1999, but it has been hampered by a low number of participants and almost
lost its funding this summer. Since then, it has enrolled 16 participants
with another five pending assessments, said Director Angela Saulter. No one
has graduated from the program.

Officials in Johnston, Harnett and Lee counties have received federal
grants to plan a drug treatment court, but they still must compete for
grant money to actually start one. Orange County hasn't received any drug
court money.

To take part, a person who is arrested for drug possession or other charges
must be determined to be dependent on drugs or alcohol and can't have any
prior convictions for drug trafficking or violence within five years.

At first, participants attend group therapy three times a week. That later
decreases to one night a week. During the one-year program, they must
attend Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings three times a
week, meet with a case manager once a week, complete 50 hours of community
service and stay employed.

Twice a month, participants appear before a judge for a progress report. If
they have failed to meet any requirements, the judge can sentence them to
days or weekends in jail, more community service or in-patient treatment.

To graduate, a participant must have clean drug tests for six straight months.

Now, eight North Carolina counties operate drug courts at a total cost of
about $1.3 million a year. That price tag is expected to rise to $1.95
million a year when another four courts in the planning stages start
running by the end of 2001.

Monchick points out that funneling addicts into treatment instead of prison
results in a huge cost savings. It costs about $2,500 to treat each drug
court participant each year, compared with about $23,000 to incarcerate
someone for a year.

Although state officials plan to compare the repeat conviction -- or
recidivism -- rates among drug court participants with those of similar
defendants on probation across the state, those results won't be presented
to state legislators until 2002. The study also will look at what jobs
participants have and how much they're making and conduct a cost-benefit
analysis of the programs.

Even if the same percentage of drug court graduates and those sent to
prison face charges again, Monchick said researchers believe drug court
graduates will commit fewer offenses overall than those who went to prison.

Disappointing Figures

So far, Monchick said the only conclusions about recidivism rates among
North Carolina drug court graduates come from anecdotal evidence and the
Mecklenburg study.

In Mecklenburg, where the state's first drug court started in 1995, none of
the 20 graduates of the Superior Court that started in 1998 have been
convicted of new crimes, even traffic offenses. And only four of the 80
graduates from the county's drug courts -- which also operate in district,
juvenile and family court -- have faced new criminal charges or traffic
citations since 1998, said Director Karen Simon.

For comparison, Mecklenburg took a look at the recidivism rate among those
who dropped out of drug court. They found that 40 percent of the 132 people
who failed in the drug courts were later charged with criminal offenses.

"There's no doubt that treatment definitely works," Simon said. "Any length
of time we can keep them in treatment will reduce the amount of criminal
activity."

In Wake, drug court graduates also are less likely to commit crimes than
those who dropped out of the program. Eleven of the first 25 graduates, or
44 percent, have since been convicted of misdemeanors, felonies or driving
while impaired by alcohol or drugs. In contrast, 32 of the 55 people who
failed to graduate from drug court during the same time period -- or 58
percent -- were later convicted of crimes, according to a News & Observer
analysis.

Unlike Mecklenburg's study, The N&O's analysis didn't consider traffic
citations, other than DWI, as evidence of recidivism. The offenses
committed by drug court graduates include embezzlement, trespassing,
larceny, assault on a female, worthless check, and possession of cocaine
and drug paraphernalia.

While some are surprised by the vast difference in reconviction rates in
the drug courts in Mecklenburg and Wake counties, it appears Wake's program
might have tackled a tougher clientele. Among Wake's first batch of
participants, 44 percent had two or more previous convictions, while only
22 percent of Mecklenburg's had similar records.

Wake's recidivism rate appears equal to that among drug addicts who were
treated in state prisons. A study completed this year shows 44 percent of
the 4,648 inmates who participated in the prison system's Drug Alcohol
Recovery Treatment program in 1996 and 1997 were arrested again after being
released.

Despite the disappointing early results in Wake, Collins said officials
realize it's a long road of recovery for these addicts.

"Recovery tends to build on itself," Collins said. "If someone can stay
clean for a month and relapse, they have something to build on. They've
learned about recovery."

"For a lot of these people, it's the longest period of sobriety in their
adult lives. At least while they are in the program, they're not out
committing new crimes."