NEW DRUG TREATMENT COURT IDEA WORTH TRY

The new Drug Treatment Court of Cobb County is a breath of fresh air in the
so often frustrating effort to break the cycle of abuse and related offenses
by first offenders.

It focuses on rehabilitating instead of punishing. And it appears to make
good sense.

The program started last month with Superior Court Judge George Kreeger and
other treatment team members selecting the first participants for 18 months
of counseling and evaluation in lieu of prosecution. Kreeger came up with
the drug treatment court idea after he saw the same people appearing before
him over and over for drug-related offenses.

Especially troubling to Kreeger were the cases of young people who came
before him for minor possession charges, only to return facing more serious
burglary charges stemming from their addiction.

This is not a way for first offenders to "beat the system." A sentence to
drug treatment court "is going to be a lot tougher than probation," the
usual sentence, said Judge Kreeger.

Participants will have to attend up to five counseling and evaluation
sessions each week at the county courthouse. Each offender must attend
outside group meetings, submit to random drug testing, keep a steady job,
and earn a high school equivalency certificate if he or she is not a
graduate.

If a person completes the 18-month program, there will be no prosecution.
Charges will be dropped, resulting in a clean record for the future - a
fresh start for a young person who ran afoul of the law. But if a
participant does not finish the course, then prosecution in criminal court
will be the result.

Even the taxpayers benefit. Participants will help pay for their treatment,
based on financial ability, with a minimum of $10 per week required. The
balance of the $2,400-per-person cost will be defrayed from a state grant
and a county allotment of $150,000 for the next two years, according to Skip
Chesshire, Superior Court administrator.

The new program has support throughout the county's criminal justice system.

Eight of the nine Superior Court judges have given approval to the plan. It
has been endorsed by police chiefs in the county and by District Attorney
Pat Head, who will forward potential participants to the treatment court.
"Now I've got something to do with them besides prosecute them," Head said.

The members of the county Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to
appropriate the money for the program. Chairman Sam Olens sees it from the
taxpayers' viewpoint as "a more effective way to treat the problems and
reduce costs."

If the program salvages even a few of the first offenders, there is much to
be said in terms of averting the all-too-familiar recidivism among drug
offenders, not to mention the tragic loss of human potential and promise.
Clearly, with the stakes so high, it is worth the effort and the costs.

It is hoped that the Drug Treatment Court will succeed in redirecting many,
if not all, the young people who participate into productive lives - so that
Cobb's new Drug Treatment Court will become, as Commission Chairman Olens
said, "a win-win."