CITY BIDS FOR A DRUG COURT

Mayor Hopes To Receive $2.5 Million

NEW BEDFORD -- Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. is seeking $2.5 million
in federal funds to set up a court that would specialize in drug cases.

The so-called drug court -- first suggested by District Court Judge
John A. Markey about four years ago -- would assess the needs of
addicts, place them in programs to help them clean up and unclog a
backlogged District Court.

Mayor Kalisz is pursuing funding for the project through the Office of
the National Drug Control Policy. He is hopeful of getting the funding
needed to get the program up and running in the next few months. He
has the support of both Judge Markey and District Attorney Paul F.
Walsh Jr.

Barry McCaffrey, who heads of the national drug office and is commonly
referred to as the nation's drug czar, "is committed to New Bedford,"
said Mayor Kalisz yesterday afternoon.

"For too long people have said that we can't handle the drug problem
in New Bedford -- it is way too big," said the mayor. "But we have to
start dealing with addiction."

Drug courts are created at the local level so they can be tailored to
meet the needs of communities, according to the national drug office.
Some courts target first-time offenders while others concentrate on
habitual criminals.

Mayor Kalisz said the $2.5 million he is seeking would kick-start the
program which would be run through 3rd District Court under the
supervision of Judge Markey. It would be presided over by a judge who
has been trained in the Department of Justice's Drug Court program.

Described by Mr. McCaffrey as "one of the most monumental changes in
social justice since World War II," drug courts were created in
response to the crime-wave which accompanied the crack epidemic which
struck the country in the late 1980s.

In 1989, Janet Reno, then state's attorney for Dade County, Fla.,
spearheaded the first drug court strategy in Miami. Today there are
approximately 400 drug courts nationwide.

According to the national drug office, "In exchange for successfully
completing treatment, the court may dismiss the original charge,
reduce or set aside the sentence, offer a lesser penalty or any
combination of these options."

The mayor said that while the "pilot" drug-court program may be
controversial, it will strike a "balance between morality and legality."

If it works as planned, those who are arrested for possession of drugs
would have to go through a lengthy testing process, including
urinalysis, to determine the extent of their addictions and the best
method of treatment. This could also help the city and the state in
determining the need for treatment facilities, added the mayor.

Jail time handed down by the drug court would be a last resort, said
the mayor. The program's mission is to shift the focus from
incarceration to treatment.

"This will minimize incarceration and focus on behavior modification,"
he said. "(The defendants) will be accountable to the judge and if
they fail, will be penalized and penalized swiftly. In these cases we
are dealing with everyone from the dregs of society to some of the
most sophisticated members of a community."

Mayor Kalisz said the decision to pursue drug-court funding is tied to
his discussions in Washington with McCaffrey and with his team of
experts who visited the city in late July.

The mayor said that when he left Washington he was told that he had to
demonstrate local support to in order to receive the funding. The
mayor's first call was to Judge Markey who runs the courts 3rd
District Court.

"I was surprised about his enthusiasm," said the mayor about his
initial and subsequent discussions with Judge Markey. "He told me that
he had attempted to do this before but he had no support."

Judge Markey then called District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. who has
complained numerous times about the lack of judges to preside in
district-court cases. Mr. Walsh had said previously that the city did
not need a drug court, just more judges in District Court.

Last month, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Connelly, said during
the visit of the drug czar's staff: "New Bedford already has a drug
court -- it's 3rd District Court. We don't favor the creation of a
drug court."

At that time, Mr. Connelly noted that 80 percent of the cases
prosecuted in district court are drug cases but that the courts are
very short staffed.

"Seems to us that what we have now should be more fully used," he
said. He added that talk of a new bureaucracy was "misguided."

"Let's get more staff for what we have before we look to the creation
of some new entity," Mr. Connelly said.

However, Mr. Walsh, said yesterday he never opposed the creation of a
drug court in New Bedford, it just wasn't at the top of his wish list.

"I always thought it was a good idea," said Mr. Walsh. "It's just that
in New Bedford District Court, we don't have enough judges for what we
have in cases. New Bedford District Court is the third busiest court
in state and it never gets its fair share of judges. I don't care
which way we do it, from the district-court or drug-court perspective,
I just want to get the problem of too many cases and not enough judges
solved."

The drug court Mayor Kalisz wants would be similar to those in New
Haven, Conn. and in Arizona, all of which were developed by Judge Jeff
Tauber whose model has become a national blueprint for drug courts.

Mr. Walsh believes that in order for it to work, it must be
simple.

"I don't want to get too fancy getting the feds involved," Mr. Walsh
said. "If we can do it more simply by adding a judge or two, then that
would work. We need to be simple and concise. Otherwise dealing with
the federal bureaucracy we could be dilly-dallying for several years.
There are many paths through the woods."

Judge Markey could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Walsh said that if the federal program becomes stalled but the
state provides the additional resources he needs, he could start a
local program utilizing police, court and probation officials to
monitor the actions of drug users in his own version of the drug court.

He said the results of a locally created program could be the same as
the federal program if funded properly.

"A lot of people define the problem in different ways," said Mr.
Walsh. "Drugs will never go away.... If we can pull it off, it can
help a lot of people, said Mr. Walsh.