DRUG COURTS' SUCCESSES

STATES can save money by sending its drug users through a special court
instead of directly to jail. In California, one new study estimates the
state could be saving as much as $18 million a year in its drug courts. It
found that for every 100 people in a particular drug court system, that
system saved about $200,000 annually, as the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America recently noted in its newsletter. There are 90 drug courts in
California and they average 100 participants each, so the potential savings
are high. In addition, arrest rates dropped 85 percent for a group of 1,945
drug court graduates that another study tracked.

Oklahoma has drug courts operating in 28 counties, with 13 more trying to
establish one. To avoid prison, a person sentenced to drug court must go
through at least 18 months of treatment and counseling and remain sober
during that time. He also must have a job or be going to school.

Results so far are encouraging. Those who go through drug court are less
likely to be re- arrested than those who go to the penitentiary to serve
time. It costs $5,000 a year to sentence people through drug courts and
$16,000 a year to incarcerate a prisoner in Oklahoma.

Drug courts work to try to get addicts the help they need to kick their
habit. It takes more effort to get them the right treatment, but it appears
states are saving money -- and lives -- by redirecting addicts from a
criminal path to a productive one through the drug courts.