DRUG COURT OFFERS HOPE AND HELP

The Issue: Establishing a Drug Court in LA Salle County

Our View: This Program Is a Good Idea, If Done Right

Spend a day in La Salle County criminal court and it's evident the
origin of many of the cases before the judge can be traced to drugs or
alcohol.

Whether the defendant was using drugs at the time of the arrest, or
was committing a crime to help pay for a drug habit, drugs have become
a common denominator among criminal defendants in La Salle County.

Of the 700 felony crimes last year, more than half were directly
narcotics-related, and about one-third of the other half were
drug-motivated, according to statistics provided by the state's
attorney's office.

Recently, State's Attorney Brian Towne announced he is pursuing
establishing a county drug court, in which defendants who are addicts
and charged with a felony -- but without a violent record -- are
intensively supervised and counseled. If they complete the program,
their felony charge is dropped and along with the hope they've gained
the skills to stay straight.

Basically, they have two choices -- go to jail or get treatment. To
keep defendants on track, those admitted to drug court must attend
regular court sessions, receive home visits and be drug tested.

Any plan to address drug-addicted defendants, besides throwing them
behind bars for the "system" to take care of and spit back out into
society, is worth pursuing.

Towne says the county does not have the resources and personnel to
immediately start up a program. We hope this program is not allowed to
fade away.We support Towne's effort. We recognize there are expense
issues, but hope Towne will be able to show costs savings to justify
expenses.

Supporters of drug courts say the program is cost-effective down the
line, as recidivism is less among drug court participants, which means
many of those defendants do not wind up back in court or behind bars.
Housing prisoners costs taxpayers thousands upon thousands of dollars
each year.

If drug courts can help break that chain, and help curb drug abuse, we
encourage such a program in La Salle County.

For such a program to succeed, there's a number of factors the state's
attorney's office must ensure will be in place, including proper and
consistent treatment and assessment.

Sheldon Sobol, Grundy County state's attorney, said La Salle County
would do well to have its own drug court. Grundy County has operated
one for about two years.

"What you're trying to do is modify behavior. In the big picture, the
judge's job is to make the community better by making people in drug
court productive people, not drains on our economy and community. It's
giving them tools to compete,"Sobol recently told The Times.

In Grundy County, interested candidates are evaluated and their case
is put before the drug court team, consisting of counselors and court
personnel, who discuss the appropriate penalty that will hang above
the candidate's head if they botch the program. A successful defendant
must spend at least 14 months in the program.

After a person graduates, there is no system in place to track whether
they commit new offenses in Grundy County, Sobol said. We would
encourage Towne to set up a system to gauge the success of the program
in La Salle County.

In considering the need for drug courts, we also should ask ourselves
whether these nonviolent offenders need rehabilitation more than the
community needs them incarcerated.

Drug courts are not intended to be a save-all in the judicial system,
but it's certainly a vehicle to help rehabilitate the drug addict, who
can return to society asa productive citizen rather than a drain.