SUPPORTERS: DRUG COURT DOES WORK

Report Criticizes System

A national organization's critical report on drug courts has
supporters defending a system they say has reduced repeat offenses
and improved lives by making substance abuse treatment a part of the
judicial process.

This week the 11,000-member National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers issued "America's Problem-Solving Courts: The Criminal Costs
of Treatment and the Case for Reform," a report that studied some of
the nation's 2,100-plus drug, DUI and mental health courts. Hall
County operates four treatment courts that require participants to
get ongoing court-monitored treatment for substance abuse or mental
health issues. All but DUI court are voluntary.

The report criticizes drug courts that require participants to plead
guilty to the underlying charge before treatment begins. In Hall
County's felony drug court, the criminal charge is dismissed and the
conviction erased if a participant successfully completes the
intensive two-year program.

The report claims that the system "results in dismissals for
relatively few defendants."

But in Hall County drug court, 91 percent of the people who have
entered the program have successfully completed it and had their
charges dropped, with 313 graduates since the program started in
2000. Only 4.9 percent of those who have completed the program have
gone on to commit new offenses, a far lower recidivism rate than
typical felony cases, according to Debbie Mott, Hall County's
director of treatment services.

Superior Court Judge Jason Deal, who oversees felony drug court in
Hall and Dawson counties, disagrees with the report's contention that
drug courts should be operated without requiring a participant to
first plead guilty.

Deal said one of the keys to the effectiveness of drug courts is that
participants know if they don't complete the requirements and are
terminated from the program, the felony conviction stays.

"It gives willpower to folks whose willpower has been undermined by
their addictions," Deal said. Voluntary substance abuse treatment is
less successful because "they can just walk away from private
treatment," Deal said. "They can't walk away from drug court."

The report faults treatment courts for operating with little input
from the defense bar and claims most defendants aren't adequately
counseled on their rights.

Deal notes that local defense attorneys had equal input when the
criteria and policies were first set for Hall County's drug court
under the leadership of Senior Judge John Girardeau. The drug court
team includes a defense attorney on staff, and private attorneys can
also advocate on behalf of their clients in court, Deal said.

Drug court participants meet at least twice with a defense attorney
before making a decision on entering the program and are counseled
extensively on their rights before pleading guilty, the judge said.

The report is critical of drug courts that have strict entry
requirements and don't accept high-risk repeat offenders, which it
says are often those most in need of treatment.

In Hall County, participants in the felony court can only have one
prior felony conviction and cannot have any convictions for violent crimes.

Federal requirements made when the court was started with Justice
Department grants are part of the reason violent offenders are not
allowed into the program, Deal said. But it's also a safety
precaution for drug court staffers who are not law enforcement
officers, he said.

Also, high-risk offenders could not be mixed in with low-risk
offenders and the latter still be successful, Deal said. Prosecutors
who answer to the public also may be reluctant to dismiss charges
against a person with multiple prior convictions, he said.

"This has to be something that all the different parties are willing
to participate in," Deal said. "It's a collaboration between the
defense, the prosecution and the courts."

Advocates of drug courts take the biggest issue with what they say is
an overtly political slant to the National Association of Defense
Lawyer's report. The report recommends decriminalizing low-level drug
use and asserts that drugs should be a public health concern, not a
criminal justice issue.

"The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers favors
legalization of drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin and crack
cocaine," Chris Deutch, a spokesman for the National Association of
Drug Court Professionals, said in a statement. "Therefore, it is not
surprising that it chooses to attack our nation's most successful
justice intervention for substance-abusing offenders: drug courts."

Deal said the scientific data backs up drug courts. But some of their
benefits to society are "incalculable," he said.

People who were once a drain on the system become employed, taxpaying
and responsible parents, Deal said.

Said Mott, "It's just kind of hard to dispute when you see folks
return to their families and becoming productive members of society."

Said Deal, "I've got a box full of letters in my office and every one
says, 'Drug court saved my life; if it weren't for drug court I'd be
dead or in prison, I wouldn't have stopped.' So, it's hard to argue
with that data."