REHAB JUSTICE

Our Federal Justice System Has A Great Deal To Learn From Our State
Court Systems

Today, nearly every state has a "drug court" to deal with nonviolent
drug offenders through a mix of treatment and sanctions, all as part
of an effort to reduce recidivism, substance abuse and costs.

Statistics show that drug courts are a success, yet Congress persists
in mandating ever stiffer sentences for federal offenders who need
treatment more than punishment.

While drug court programs vary from state to state, most try to
address the cause of an offender's behavior: addiction.

All offer community-based treatment in lieu of prison.

Offenders who choose to participate in a drug court and complete their
treatment typically can have the charges against them dropped, or can
plead guilty without being sentenced to prison.

In 2003, there were more than 1,500 drug courts either in operation or
in the planning stages.

Drug court graduates have substantially lower rates of criminal
recidivism than offenders who are imprisoned. In New York, for
example, the re-arrest rate among 18,000 drug court graduates was 13
percent, compared with 47 percent for the same type of drug offenders
who served prison time without treatment.

Drug courts also cost less than incarceration and have high retention
and completion rates. Even Congress recognizes their worth; since
1994, it has authorized the attorney general to make grants to states,
state and local courts, and local and tribal governments to establish
drug courts.

Years ago, Chief Judge James L. Oakes of the United States Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit and I, as chief judge of the Eighth
Circuit, sponsored a sentencing institute.

At that institute, I asked the chairman of the United States
Sentencing Commission why an 18-year-old who had received some drugs
by mail for a friend should face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10
years, under the commission's federal sentencing guidelines set by the
commission. The chairman responded that because this teenager would be
in prison during his 20's, the age when the likelihood of recidivism
is greatest, the sentence would cut down on re-arrests. The head of
the Bureau of Prisons whispered to me, "Doesn't he realize when that
young man gets out of prison, he will be nothing more than a hardened
criminal?"

Mandatory minimum sentences, enacted by Congress, have contributed to
the rising costs of imprisonment and crowding in federal prisons.

In federal drug cases, defendants could face a minimum of 5 to 10
years in prison, while a similar offense in some state courts would
allow a court, depending on the circumstances, to place the defendant
on probation. Justice Anthony Kennedy and several other scholars,
judges, professors and law reviews have openly criticized the use of
mandatory minimum sentences in federal criminal cases.

To make matters worse, a bill has been proposed in the Senate that
would set a mandatory sentence of 10 years for a first drug conviction
and mandatory life imprisonment for a second.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Web site (as of Sept. 4,
2004), the total federal inmate population is 180,318. About 54
percent of that population are drug felons.

The total cost for each prisoner was $61 per day; for the entire
population, almost $11 million a day or $4 billion a year. It is
predicted that by 2010 there will be more than 216,000 individuals
serving time in federal prisons.

Unlike the states, the federal criminal justice system offers no
alternatives for nonviolent offenders charged with drug-related
crimes. In the federal system, it is almost a certainty that a
convicted drug offender will be incarcerated rather than going through
a community-based treatment program.

It is little wonder then that the federal prison system will continue
to be overburdened. Given the success of drug courts in the states,
the federal government should study how to modify its sentencing to
incorporate elements of the drug court model and to assess the
effectiveness of community-based alternatives to imprisonment for
nonviolent federal drug felons.

Congress would need to authorize the mechanics of federal drug courts.
One suggestion would be that magistrate judges could preside over the
drug court, while federal probation officers could oversee the
offenders' attendance at drug treatment programs as well as obtain
employment and housing for them. A good start would be to develop
sentencing policies that take drug dependency into account, and that
place as much emphasis on preventing crime as on punishing misconduct.
Sentences that combine treatment, monitoring and the threat of
imprisonment hold the promise of long-term solutions to crime.

They should be more readily available in the federal
system.

The high cost of this incarceration policy falls on
taxpayers.

However, beyond all of this is the fact that the real damage is
incurred by the individuals who must spend a large portion of their
life in prison.

The damage to young prisoners cannot be measured in dollars and
cents.

Cases are now pending before the Supreme Court that will affect
sentences in all federal cases.

This presents an opportunity for the executive and legislative
branches to bring sanity to federal drug sentencing. Congress has
nothing to lose and everything to gain by passing legislation to carry
out a program for federal drug courts.

Donald P. Lay is the seniorjudge for the United States Court of
Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.