KEEP DRUG COURT OPEN

Our position: Drug court is a criminal proceeding and shouldn't be kept secret.

Florida's drug courts aren't hospitals. They're legal venues for tracking
the progress of nonviolent drug addicts diverted from jail into treatment.
When clients violate the terms of their contract with the court, judges
don't send them to a hospital. They can put the offenders in jail.

Yet attorneys for Noelle Bush argue that the governor's daughter deserves
privacy at her upcoming drug-court hearing because drug-court laws provide
confidentiality.

But a secret hearing -- being challenged by Orlando Sentinel attorneys - -
hasn't been the case for any other drug-court client. And it shouldn't be
for Miss Bush. It makes sense to keep the details of clients' treatment
confidential, but the same logic doesn't apply to court proceedings. Open
hearings protect the legal rights of the addict, whose fate is at stake,
and serve the public's interest. The public also has a right to know how
the legal system deals with crime, even if the crime occurs at a treatment
center.

That's especially true now that a circuit-court judge has ruled that police
can't force a treatment center to cooperate with police investigating Miss
Bush's possible possession of drugs at the center.

If the ruling holds up on appeal, open drug-court hearings would be the
only way the public could know whether treatment centers are doing a good
job keeping illegal drugs away from clients.

Miss Bush is no different than any addict ordered into treatment after an
arrest on drug-related charges. Giving her equal treatment in court will
instill confidence in a program that is giving her a second chance.