REHAB ALTERNATIVE IS LESS COSTLY THAN IMPRISONMENT, WITH LOWER RECIDIVISM

Official: Drug Courts Get People Clean At Low Cost

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's expanding drug court system is like compound
interest because the returns keep growing and growing over time, Richard
Schwermer of the state Court Administrator's Office says.

Drug courts offer people charged with substance abuse crimes a chance to
enter intensive, court-supervised therapy programs rather than going to
prison.

Schwermer said Utah is finding fewer than 10 percent of the participants
who graduate from the program and up back before the court on future drug
charges.

Since more than half of state prison inmates are serving time on
drug-related convictions, drug courts offer the future possibility of
significantly reducing prison populations, he said.

In the five years since Utah began experimenting with drug courts, the
prison population has leveled off, Schwermer said.

Currently, about three-fourths of inmates serving time on their first
felony drug conviction will end up back in prison at least one more time.
The cost to taxpayers is roughly $30,000 a year for each inmate.

But the cost of keeping people in the drug court's intensive treatment
program runs only about $3,000 yearly, he said.

"We're seeing some incredible numbers coming out of the drug courts,"
Schwermer told the November monthly meeting of the Legislature's Law
Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.

When the Legislature finally decided to help fund drug courts earlier this
year, it appropriated $1.5 million to assist seven existing adult and
juvenile court programs in Davis, Salt Lake, Uintah, Utah and Weber
counties.

Of that amount, $320,000 went to help create new drug courts serving Emery
and Tooele counties and the 1st District Court, which includes Box Elder,
Cache and Rich counties.

Those new court programs "are just tooling up and taking clients," he said.
The existing programs are working with more than 700 people, and about 150
to 200 have graduated, which typically takes about 18 months.

"It's proved to be a good investment," Schwermer said.

Weber County's drug court only received $41,250 this year from the $1.5
million appropriation, he said. But that is because Weber County recently
obtained a three-year federal grant worth $500,000 and needed less state
help.

The Court Administrator's Office also hopes the drug courts' remarkable
success will be mirrored by a prototype court program aimed at dealing with
people suspected of child abuse or child neglect who also are found to be
abusing drugs.

"If a father is making methamphetamine and his 2-year-old son is sitting
over in the corner, is that child being neglected? Is that child being
abused? Yes. So, if we can get that parent off drugs, we can probably end
the child neglect and child abuse."

Drug courts have been in operation nationally for 11 years. All of the
courts have recidivism rates of less than 20 percent and many of less than
10 percent, Schwermer said.