REHAB PLAN PUSHED FOR SMALL DRUG CASES

Cook County court officials on Tuesday said a program under which small-time
drug defendants can avoid the possibility of jail by agreeing to undergo 18
months of rehabilitation will be expanded, even though almost half of those
in a test run of the program rejected the offer.

Of the 188 suspects given the option since April after a screening process,
74, or about 40 percent, have said "no, thanks," preferring to risk the
chance of getting a typical 6-month sentence by going to court.

"They would rather just go and do their time than take what they view as the
difficult process of going through the treatment program," said Thomas
Fitzgerald, presiding judge of Criminal Court. "Going through treatment
requires the person to make a commitment to getting off drugs and changing
their lives."

But Fitzgerald and Cook County State's Atty. Dick Devine prefer to stress
the positive flip side, in which 60 percent of the test group agreed to try
rehab. They view the trial as a success and plan to expand it.

The program is being funded by a $400,000 federal grant designed to tackle
several justice system problems, including the glut of minor drug cases
clogging the courts and jails and the need to find a way to reduce the
number of repeat offenders.

Rehab instead of possible jail sentences was offered to drug users on
probation for non-violent crimes who are rearrested for Class 4 drug
felonies. Officials say those types of cases typically involve less then a
gram of cocaine--about 1/26th of an ounce.

Overall, 17,000 people were charged with Class 4 drug cases in 1995-96,
making up 60 percent of the drug felony cases heard at the Criminal Courts
Building at 26th Street and California Avenue. The overwhelming numbers of
all kinds of drug cases prompted Fitzgerald to create a shift of night court
hearings eight years ago.

Since the test phase of the current effort began in April, prosecutors have
screened 317 suspects, approaching them with the rehab instead of jail offer
soon after their arrest. Treatment experts say that can be an ideal crisis
moment to provoke some drug abusers into committing to change, Fitzgerald
said.

That group included suspects who were later disqualified because they were
found to have had violent histories.

In addition to 37 who rejected the offer outright, 29 initially agreed to
rehab, but later changed their minds, and 8 younger suspects declined rehab
to seek placement in a boot camp.

Of the 114 suspects who agreed to enter rehab, a dozen have since violated
their agreement with the court and been sentenced to jail, said Assistant
State's Atty. Laura Sullivan.

"For many people, it's easier to take a regular sentence, do the time and
remain on drugs than to admit to having a problem and try to treat it,"
Sullivan said. "This is a harder road."

Orlando Williams, 23, was one of the first to choose that hard road in April
after being arrested for possessing marijuana while already on probation on
a possession charge.

Williams said he grabbed at the rehab offer because he had been looking for
a way out of his daily routine of smoking pot and doing little else.

"I'd been looking to get off weed for a long time," he said.

He has been going to the Gateway Foundation on Grand Avenue, meeting with
counselors and other abusers in group sessions several times every week.

"They teach you not to be ashamed that you came for help," said Williams.
"If people look at it the same way I looked at it, it'll help a lot of
people. But it's kind of a tough program. If you don't want to get off, you
won't."

The program involves in-patient or out-patient direct drug treatment,
depending on the assessed need; sharpening the job skills of participants,
including helping them work toward high school equivalency degrees; and a
follow-up phase in which the participants are out on their own while
reporting periodically to program staffers.

The endeavor is similar to those under way in Santa Barbara, Calif., Miami
and New York, Sullivan said. "It's been very successful for them and, so
far, it's been very successful for us," she said. "Look at the people who
are normally charged with Class 4 felonies: they are chronic users who clog
up the system. This will break some of that up."

She anticipates that as many as 1,000 defendants will be screened as
possible participants in the program next year.

Checked-by: Don Beck