Prosecutor Praises Alternative Court Program

Beverly Scarlett laughs when I ask how she can
prosecute people she knows.

When you're an assistant district attorney in the place you grew up
in, you know everybody, she says. And some of them end up in court.

But Scarlett also knows that many of the people she sees sitting at
the defendant's table are there because of an underlying drug or
alcohol problem. Until three years ago there was little she could do
to get them the help they needed to stay clean and crime free.

So there she was two weekends ago applauding some of the people she
might once have put behind bars. The event was a graduation ceremony
for alumni of Orange County's drug treatment court, which gives
non-violent offenders a chance to stay out of prison if they complete
an 18-month rehab program.

People like 27-year-old Jesse Fellows, who graduated from the program
April 13.

"I'd wake up, go to work, get off work go get drunk, go get high, go
do something illegal," Fellows told the small group gathered at
Freedom House.

"Mostly illegal," he added.

Now he's gone back to school -- a 3.0 (B) average, thank you -- and he
has two jobs.

Or Tami Atwater-Mitchell, at 44, the first graduate of the drug
treatment court.

"I had so many charges, for a female it was just ridiculous," she
said. "I'm so used to being on probation I still call Bobby Perry [her
probation officer] every day just to say, 'How ya doin?'"

Today she's married, has a house, two cars and a job. Her husband was
in the audience.

Like Fellows, Atwater-Mitchell underwent counseling, drug tests and
agreed to complete an "after-care" program where she helped others.

It can take all that to break a substance-abuse habit. But court
officials says it's worth the extra time and effort. It's also
cheaper. It costs $2,000 to $2,500 a year to provide community
treatment and supervision compared to $23,000 annually to house an
offender in prison.

And the costs only go up if you count repeat business, says Chief
District Court Judge Joe Buckner, who presides over drug treatment
court.

Like Scarlett, Buckner says he's used to seeing the same people in
regular court -- sometimes within the same week. And while he sees
mostly lower-level crimes in District Court, a federal Justice
Department study found two-thirds of those released from prison commit
a new crime within three years. Most of them are involved with drugs
and/or alcohol.

Which is why Scarlett is all for attacking the problem at its
roots.

She recently helped a former high school classmate -- they're both in
their 40s now -- get into residential drug treatment. She would not
have had the opportunity had it not been for the special court.

But doesn't that sound more like social work than DA's work, I
asked.

"Call me a social worker, call me anything you want to call me," she
said.

"If I'm successful in keeping a boy from breaking into somebody's
home, if I'm successful in keeping a son or a daughter from striking
out at their father, mother, you can call me anything you want. And
I'm happy to take it."