STATE PANEL SAYS DRUG COURTS WORK

NEW JERSEY'S prison population has declined by thousands in the past
few years, a good sign that court-managed drug diversion programs are
paying off. They have been so effective that the state's Commission to
Review Criminal Sentencing wants to see them expanded.

The drug court's diversion programs has kept 6,700 non-violent
offenders from having to serve time behind bars since the
mid-Nineties. Were it not for the hands-on approach of teams of
probation officers, counselors and judges, most of them would be added
to the present population of 23,000 inmates being held in the
Department of Corrections prison facilities. The strict court-managed
monitoring regulates every aspect of the participant's daily life --
down to his curfew. Only 14 percent get rearrested for new offenses,
recent drug court figures show.

In a report issued Friday, the New Jersey Commission to Review
Criminal Sentencing recommends reshaping the statutory foundation so
that more defendants get access to drug courts. The recommendation
would allow defendants with two or more prior third-degree convictions
to be eligible for the special probation status that determines who
can join the diversion program.

Most often prison-reform advocates push cost savings as a rationale
for diversion programs like drug courts. But you can't ignore the
blossoming of human potential: That's priceless. Chronic alcohol and
drug abusers get sober, begin working steadily and connect with
society. Lives are salvaged and the cost of running state prisons is
reduced.

The Department of Corrections' new budget estimates spending $34,600
per inmate. The savings potential could be significant: Theoretically
every 50 inmates kept out of jail for the next year would represent a
savings of about $1.7 million.

State court administrators say more than 6,700 non-violent
drug-addicted adult offenders were sentenced to drug court rather than
being incarcerated since 1996, when New Jersey started its pilot
program. Passaic was among the first. Bergen's started in 2002. Now
all counties have access to drug courts.

"Right now it is a very restrictive statute," said Ben Barlyn, the
sentencing review commission's executive director. "One of our
proposals is to expand eligibility for certain defendants whose
backgrounds would make them [suitable] for treatment."

By proposing to expand eligibility, the commission fulfills its
mission to examine the fairness of sentencing guidelines that
contribute to runaway prison population growth.

In spite of the best efforts of many states to reduce inmate
populations through more enlightened sentencing, reentry and diversion
programs, the criminal justice system has been unable to stem the tide
of incarceration.

In a review of programs nationwide, the prison reform advocacy group,
The Sentencing Project, reported that in spite of diversion programs
being adopted in 22 states the nation's prison population overall
continued growing by 7 percent from 2000 to 2005. The group recommends
a multifaceted approach that includes sentencing alternatives to
incarceration -- alternatives like New Jersey drug courts -- and
expanded drug and alcohol treatment programs.

The organization also recommends better funding for social services to
help ex-offenders with day-to-day living and mental health issues that
trap them in prison's revolving door.

The drug court diversions seem to be paying off in New Jersey, where
the population of men and women behind bars dropped by 4,000 inmates
in DOC institutions since 2004. So far so good, but many other
sentencing issues must be reformed.

For New Jersey to stay on course, the Commission to Review Criminal
Sentencing needs more staff and increased funding so that whatever
legislation is needed to implement reforms gets in the legislative
pipeline quickly.

The commission's only other recommendation in its three-and-a-half-year
existence was a proposal to reduce the size of school drug zones
because in urbanized New Jersey they are overly punitive. The
commission's good intentions lose value if reforms come at the present
snail's pace of only once a year. Instead the staff should be equipped
to hand over a packet of reforms for the Legislature to work on in
every legislative session.

That's the only way to make a permanent difference in the epidemic
rate of incarceration.