DRUG COURT WINS TOP PRAISE

The U.S. drug czar paid a visit to Miami-Dade's Drug Court to tout its
success in turning around the lives of nonviolent, first-time offenders
with addiction problems.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeffrey Rosinek couldn't believe Vincent
Sweeting's excuse for "testing dirty for cocaine."

"I broke up with my girlfriend," Sweeting told the judge Wednesday morning.
"I was emotionally hurt."

"If it's not perfect the next time, you're going to jail," Rosinek said,
ordering up more substance-abuse counseling.

Rosinek's tough-love approach has been the guiding spirit of Miami- Dade's
Drug Court, a pioneering project that the nation's drug czar recognized on
Wednesday as a model for the nation.

John P. Walters, director of the White House's Office of National Drug
Control Policy, touted the program's success in trying to turn around the
lives of nonviolent users in the government's unending war on drugs. The
Miami-Dade Drug Court has produced more than 10,000 graduates, with a
rearrest record of only 4 percent, according to a study.

"It builds on the balance we have tried to establish," Walters said in
Rosinek's courtroom. "We want to cut off the sources of both demand and
supply that feed this problem."

Standing in the middle of Drug Court, Walters outlined the Bush
administration's latest assault on drugs -- from targeting Latin American
traffickers to voluntary random public-school testing to community
substance-abuse treatment. He cited the success of Miami's Drug Court,
launched in 1989 by then-State Attorney Janet Reno, Public Defender Bennett
Brummer and others.

Since then, it has spawned more than 1,600 drug courts in Broward and other
Florida counties as well as every other state.

President's Bush's proposed fiscal year 2006 budget includes $70 million
for local drug courts, more than double the $30.6 million allocation this
year. Miami-Dade won't see any of that new money because it's for start-up
courts only, Walters said.

Walters said drug court has had a "real effect" on criminal recidivism.

In a statement to a congressional committee earlier this month, Walters
pointed to a National Institute of Justice study that compared re- arrest
rates for drug court graduates with people who were imprisoned for drug
offenses -- and he found "significant differences."

According to the study, the likelihood that a drug court graduate would be
rearrested and charged with a serious offense in the first year after
graduation was 16.4 percent, compared with 43.5 percent for non-drug-court
graduates. By the two-year mark, the recidivism rate had grown to 27.5
percent for graduates, compared with 58.6 percent for nongraduates.

"The good news for the individual who is arrested and referred to a drug
court is the possibility of avoiding prison entirely, and possibly having
his or her arrest record expunged after the fact," Walters told the
congressional panel.

Walters reiterated the importance of that incentive in helping addicts
avoid turning into more serious offenders seeking to supply their insidious
habits. He said the most important goal is to save the lives of drug users
and make them productive again, starting as early as possible.

"Recovery depends on giving people a second chance," he said.

Karen Freeman-Wilson, head of the private National Association of Drug
Court Professionals, praised Miami's model as the "birthplace" for
"miracles that happen every day."

"There is no better model in the judicial system to help individuals get
their lives back," Wilson said.

Rosinek, a former social studies teacher at Coral Gables High, runs his
drug court like an inspirational leader -- applauding success stories,
pressuring failures to clean up their act. He has assembled a court team
that pushes not only recovery, counseling and testing, but also education,
housing and personal improvement.

"We argue about the treatment that is necessary, not the incarceration for
a lifetime," said Rosinek, whose voice sounds like the actor Joe Pesci.
"Every day I walk home and smile about all the positive things that happen
in drug court.

"We save lives one addict at a time."