FACING DRUG CASES RATIONALLY

New York state has taken a bold step to change the way it deals with drug
crimes. As of last month, nearly all nonviolent offenders who agree to
plead guilty get treatment rather than jail time. The new approach is
expected to divert up to 10,000 criminals a year from the prison system,
and yield cost savings worth tens of millions.

New York's strategy has been tried in numerous states, but mainly in the
limited form of pilot programs. The New York court system will be the first
in the country to offer drug treatment on a statewide basis.

The plan is certain to present administrative challenges. Extra staff will
be required to screen and track addicts. And judges will have to develop
new sets of skills, for understanding how addiction works, and for weighing
backsliding.

Still, in the long run, New York should come out ahead. The bill for
imprisoning its drug offenders is currently about $29,000 a person, or
nearly $650 million a year. Treatment not only costs substantially less; it
should reduce crime. With an average success rate of 70 percent,
court-required treatment can cut the types of offenses (e.g., burglary and
prostitution) that some addicts use to support their habits.

The New York plan uses a carrot-and-stick approach. To receive treatment,
offenders who test positive for drug use must plead guilty, then enter a
program generally lasting two years. They must submit to ongoing tests,
and, if they fail, enter prison.

Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut have all experimented with drug
courts. In fact, Rhode Island's program, targeted at juveniles, produced
its first "graduate," a 14-year-old boy, just last month. The boy underwent
counseling and strict supervision for six months, after admitting he had
sold marijuana. Previously, he most likely would have been sent to the
state Training School, where juvenile behavior typically worsens, officials
say.

In a sense, drug courts turn the criminal-justice system into a last-stop
social-service agency. But it has been clear for some time that troubled
people enter "the system" through one door or another. If they are lucky,
they are treated as patients; if not, as criminals. Drug courts are a
long-overdue attempt to deal rationally with this reality. New York is
setting an important example.