TARRANT COUNTY JUVENILE DRUG ARRESTS JUMP ALMOST SEVENFOLD IN DECADE

It wasn't the first time James was busted for smoking pot that landed him
in one of the county's limited drug treatment programs for young offenders.

It was the ninth time, when a drug-sniffing dog found a hollowed-out cigar
stuffed with marijuana inside his locker at Everman High School, that made
the 16-year-old a rarity in the juvenile justice system: a young drug
abuser receiving treatment for his problem.

Despite the fact that Tarrant County's juvenile arrest rate on suspicion of
drug possession is almost seven times that of 1991, fewer spots exist in
treatment programs because of budget cuts.

Juvenile crime experts say the jump in arrests points less to increased
drug use than to more officers at schools, programs that offer financial
incentives for students to report school crime, and zero-tolerance policies
for students caught with illegal drugs.

"What we've found is that we don't know for sure that drug use per se is up
as much as our level of detection is up," Arlington police Sgt. Pat Smith said.

Officers in Tarrant County made 1,483 arrests of people younger than 17 on
suspicion of drug possession last year, according to the Texas Department
of Public Safety. That's a 571 percent increase from the 221 drug arrests
made in 1991. Nationwide, the arrest rate for juvenile drug offenses is
more than twice the 1991 average.

Meanwhile, drug use by Tarrant County juveniles has fluctuated very little,
juvenile crime analysts say. Surveys compiled by the Texas Commission on
Alcohol and Drug Abuse show that drug use among juveniles has remained
constant or has risen only slightly during the past decade.

In 1996, 11.9 percent of seventh-through 12th-graders in the Arlington
school district said they had smoked marijuana within the past 30 days.
That percentage rose to 16 percent in 1998, the most recent year for which
data are available.

Arlington police officers have had a steadily increasing presence in
schools during the past decade, from two officers in 1990 to 16 this year.
The Fort Worth school district went from 13 school police officers in 1991
to 45 this year.

And while more drug arrests are being made, county agencies that treat
young substance abusers have faced budget cuts that required scaling back
services.

A budget miscalculation by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse
this year caused a loss of 16 spaces in one of the two treatment programs
for young substance abusers affiliated with the county court system.

Studies by Join Together, a project sponsored by the Boston University
School of Public Health, found that treatment is 15 to 17 times more
effective than incarceration.

Tarrant County officials have begun to address treating young substance
abusers with a special juvenile drug court, but they acknowledge that it is
just a start. Instead of traditional court approaches, the idea is to offer
closely supervised treatment and involve relatives in the recovery.

The juvenile drug court will handle about 200 offenders this year, its
second year, but will have to turn away roughly 800 others.

"There's a lot of needs not being met, but we're chipping away at it," said
Carey Cockerell, Tarrant County juvenile services director.

The juvenile drug court is one of more than 350 similar programs across the
country but is the only such court in Texas.

Unlike in other courts, relatives sit with the young offenders and the
court workers -- judges, probation officers and social workers -- take a
personal interest in each case.

Despite the extra cost, studies show that treatment is still a better
bargain than incarceration. The average cost for time and resources spent
serving an offender in drug court is between $1,200 and $3,500, while the
cost of incarceration is approximately $5,000, according to a 10-year study
of similar courts in other states.

After going through the court, the youths are ordered to attend outpatient
treatment programs between three and five days a week for up to six months.
They are assigned to either a full-day treatment program operated by Santa
Fe Adolescent Services or an after-school program at the Tarrant Youth
Recovery Campus.

Every few weeks, they must return to court with their parents and probation
officers to talk about their progress with Tarrant County Juvenile Services
Assistant Director Bob Woods.

The tone of the informal hearings with Woods often depends on the results
of the drug tests that are given before the start of each hearing. And
there is no lack of drama.

During a recent hearing before Woods, a Haltom City student claimed his
drug test showed positive for marijuana because he had been around
secondhand smoke. Pressed by Woods, the boy said his mother had been
smoking marijuana while he was in the same room. The mother explained that
she had stopped smoking pot when her son got in trouble and agreed to take
a urine analysis test. That test showed that she had recently smoked pot
and taken methamphetamines and barbiturates.

Another adolescent told Woods that he had broken several weeks of sobriety
and had gotten drunk because he was upset that his mother had been arrested
on suspicion of transporting illegal aliens.

Last year, youths in the program passed drug tests 69 percent of the time.
July's rate was 90 percent.

Without treatment programs, juvenile justice experts say the arrests are
not effective. A Justice Policy Institute study released in July said that
states' incarceration rates on drug offenses had no effect on drug-usage
levels.

"I don't think the exclusive law enforcement approach is a good one," said
Vincent Schiraldi, executive director of the institute.

Howard Snyder, research director for the National Center for Juvenile
Justice, said the jump in arrests may indicate that occasional users are
being arrested along with regular users.

"My suspicion is when you're making that many more arrests, you're bringing
in a lot more of the kids who are less involved," Snyder said.

In his third week at the Tarrant Youth Recovery Campus, James, the
16-year-old student at Everman High School, said he is optimistic that his
seven-year pot-smoking stretch has ended.

For the next five months, James will attend the south Fort Worth treatment
program from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., taking high school classes as well as
counseling sessions. He meets with his probation officer regularly and
takes two to three drug tests a week.

James returns each evening to the same friends and neighborhood where he
started smoking pot at age 9. Still, he is optimistic that he will stay
straight despite the pressure.

"I'm used to smoking out every day. When I wasn't doing it, I felt
different," he said. "It's a new experience."

Robert Tharp, (817) 548-5420

rtharp@star-telegram.com