LANDMARK COURT INITIATIVE TO FOCUS ON DRUG TREATMENT

Nonviolent Offenders To Be Offered Placement In Addiction-Care
Programs

NEW YORK -- New York will become the first state to require that
nearly all nonviolent criminals who are drug addicts be offered
treatment instead of jail time, in an effort to reduce both the number
of repeat offenders clogging the courts and the population in the
state's prisons and jails.

Many states, including New York, have offered pilot programs like
this, but not on this scale and never statewide.

Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who has wide latitude to restructure the
courts, on Thursday ordered the courts to immediately start phasing in
the program, which will be fully in place by 2003.

Kaye said the initiative would divert up to 10,000 nonviolent
criminals a year to addiction treatment, a significant number in a
state where 95,000 people are in prison.

Criminal justice experts and court officials, noting that
court-required treatment has an average success rate of 70 percent,
said the initiative would reduce the number of people who repeatedly
commit crimes like burglary and prostitution to support addictions.
They predicted the state's inmate population would decrease by at
least 10 percent once the program is in full force.

Some experts said Kaye's order was a sign that the courts were
evolving into a social service agency of last resort, focusing not
just on punishment but on rehabilitation. Kaye herself said the plan
would deal not only with a criminal justice problem but "ruined lives,
broken families, neglected children, ravaged communities.''

Kaye estimated that the initiative would save the government $500
million a year in prison, foster care and mental health costs, without
requiring more beds in treatment programs.

To be eligible, offenders would have to test positive for drugs and be
willing to plead guilty. They would be assigned to specially trained
judges who would monitor their cases. Instead of going to jail, the
defendants would enter a rigorous treatment program and submit to
strict monitoring by court officials. If they relapse, they would go
to jail, most likely receiving a stiffer sentences than normally given
now, although that would be left to the judge's discretion.

The commission that researched the proposal included drug treatment
experts, district attorneys, judges and lawyers, who were asked to
study how the burdens on the court system could be eased without
compromising public safety. The chairman of the commission, Robert B.
Fiske Jr., a former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, emphasized that the
initiative was not "soft on crime,'' noting that it would not apply to
violent criminals or those punished under the Rockefeller drug laws,
which sometimes result in longer sentences for people found with drugs
than for rapists and murderers.

Criminal justice experts praised the initiative, saying that it
recognized the futility of punishing drug addicts, only to have them
commit more crimes later. But some experts said it does not go far
enough.

And there are other questions about how the program would be
implemented, as it requires a vast apparatus within the courts to
screen and track addicts.

Over the last two decades, drug-related cases in New York state have
increased by 400 percent, the report said. In New York City alone, 75
percent of all people arrested tested positive for drugs. And the rate
of recidivism among nonviolent offenders who are addicts can be as
high as 35 percent, the commission said. Typically, these defendants
are arraigned and then sentenced by judges with no expertise in drug
problems who may see more than 100 cases a day, spending an average of
5 minutes on each one, according to court records.

The quickest way for judges to dispose of these cases is to sentence
the defendants to jail, leading to spiraling costs. The state spends
nearly $650 million a year to imprison drug offenders, or $29,000 a
person.

The new system is intended to remove some of the haste and clutter
surrounding these cases, with a mandatory screening program for all
criminal defendants in order to identify nonviolent addicts who would
be eligible for treatment. Those defendants who agree to treatment in
lieu of jail would then be given a full assessment, including drug
testing, and be directed to a specially trained judge or prosecutor
who would assign them to a program.

The rehabilitation programs would be rigorous, generally last for one
to two years and include continued drug testing.

The more than 1,200 treatment centers around the state have available
space, according to substance-abuse experts, and could expand as the
courts generate more clients. Most of the treatment would be paid for
by Medicaid or public entitlement. Officials said the cost -- about
$103.6 million a year -- would be more than offset by the savings.