COUNTY MUST STOP SCRIMPING ON FUNDS FOR DRUG COURT

Washingtonians may feel safer this year than in past years. Violent crime
has declined, significantly in some areas.

That's the good news. The bad news is that drug-related crime remains
rampant here in Cowlitz County and in just about every other part of the state.

Drug use and the property crimes related to it continue to strain state,
county and city resources -- overtaxing law enforcement, packing our courts
and jails.

New, more efficient strategies to combat this crime are available to us.
Chief among them are drug courts now operating in more than a dozen
Washington counties, including Cowlitz County.

What's been lacking is the political will to adequately fund these special
courts and give them the backing they need to expand. Forced by tight
budgets to choose, most politicians continue to opt for incarceration over
drug courts and other drug-treatment options.

That's the "tough on crime" position, supposedly. It's not, however, the
smart position. And it will have to change, if we are to make significant
headway in this so-called war on drugs.

The Cowlitz County Drug Court and others in the state shouldn't have to go
begging each year for funding in order to keep operating. They shouldn't be
looked upon as some experiment. These courts have proved their worth, in
both the number of productive lives reclaimed and tax dollars saved.

The drug courts' emphasis on treating and rehabilitating nonviolent drug
offenders, as opposed to merely warehousing them in jails and prison for a
period of time, is a demonstrated success.

A 1999 study by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that
drug courts in the state had reduced recidivism rates by up to 16 percent.
That translates into a considerable savings for taxpayers -- $2.45 saved
for every dollar invested, according to the Institute.

A more recent study in California found that drug courts saved about
$200,000 a year for each of 100 participants studied. With 90 courts
statewide in California averaging 100 participants each, the study
estimated the courts could save the criminal justice system as much as $18
million a year.

We need to get smarter in our efforts to combat drug-related crime.
Scrimping on drug courts is penny-wise and pound-foolish. These special
courts offer a strategy that ought to have priority among legislators and
state and county budget writers.