SPECIAL DRUG COURT SEEN AS ALTERNATIVE

Sentencing Would Focus on Treatment

ITEM: Morgan Manca-Wells, a Wilde Lake High School dropout, is found in a
snowy Baltimore parking lot across the street from a hospital, dead of a
heroin overdose. Burn marks cover his body. It turns out his friends --
also high on heroin -- had scalded him with hot water in an attempt to
revive him.

ITEM: Mary Becraft, of Elkridge, is caught stealing from mailboxes around
Ellicott City. She had removed outgoing bills and altered the checks
inside, making them payable to herself to feed a heroin habit. She was
sentenced to 18 months in jail.

ITEM: A state Department of Education survey last year found that 60
percent of Howard County 10th-graders said they have used alcohol, and more
than a third said they have smoked marijuana. Thirteen percent of seniors
have tried designer drugs like ecstasy; 3 percent said they have used heroin.

Is there a substance abuse problem in Howard County?

"Absolutely," says State's Attorney Marna McLendon, who sees the end
results as dozens of criminal defendants pass through the courthouse each day.

McLendon says she's frustrated by the havoc substance abusers wreak on
families and communities, and by the apparent inability of the criminal
justice system to stop it. For the past year, a group led by McLendon has
been working on a new way of doing business that they say will stem the tide.

It's called a drug and alcohol treatment court, something that is used in
750 other jurisdictions across the country, including Harford County and
Baltimore city.Howard is on a fast track to secure a federal grant, and the
group hopes to start the court in 2003.

McLendon says the idea is simple: make treatment, rather than punishment,
the priority in cases involving nonviolent substance abusers. With
effective treatment, supporters say, relapses will be reduced and
drug-related crime will decrease.

Drug courts rely on what McLendon calls "the opportunity of crisis," the
moment when an offender sees the threat of jail time looming.

"It's an attempt to use the court, which has coercive power, as the
coordinator," said Howard District Court Judge Louis A. Becker.

Defendants in the special court would be placed under intensive supervision
that includes random urinalysis. They would be required to complete
court-ordered treatment, and they would have to appear in court as
frequently as once a week. If they failed to comply, they would risk a
stint in jail.

The key is expediency, something a drug or alcohol treatment court can
accommodate far better than the current system.

"When someone has a problem, you need to get him into treatment
immediately," said Marilyn Manson, director of the county Bureau of
Addictions. "You need to have the assessment immediately and the slots to
be able to place people."

It now often takes months to get a substance abuser into treatment.

The drug court also is designed to provide services that might, for
example, help offenders work toward their General Educational Development
(GED) diploma , learn parenting skills or enroll in vocational education
courses.

In a report released by the Howard County group last month, advocates say a
drug court could have "the power to reunite families, to reduce drug
related crime and to reduce drug demand.

"If we can reduce relapses and more successfully treat addictions we will
reduce the crime in the county," the report said.

A major study about drug courts by Steven Belenko, a fellow at the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, last year
reported that "drug use and criminal activity are relatively reduced while
participants are in the program." But "less clear are the long-term
post-program impacts of drug courts on recidivism and other outcomes," says
the study, a "critical review of 37 published and unpublished evaluations
of drug courts." The data, Belenko said, are not conclusive.

Still, the concept is supported by the federal government, and recently the
Maryland Court of Appeals set up a special commission to encourage local
jurisdictions to establish drug courts.

Even Mothers Against Drunk Driving says it supports giving the approach a try.

"We don't have any research right now to support jail or community service
as effective sanctions," said Wendy Hamilton, who serves on MADD's national
board of directors, "so we might as well try something that is
treatment-based and closely supervised."

Locally, however, there are several hurdles.

Because officials have not yet worked out the scope of the new court -- for
example, whether it will focus on drugs, alcohol or both, whether it will
target adults or juveniles -- it is unclear how much it would cost. It is
likely, however, that the maximum federal grant of $500,000 would fall
short of what is needed to run the program. Planners may need to seek
county money in what is a difficult year financially.

"Right now, this budget is still coming together," said Victoria Goodman,
the county spokesman. "Because of the economic situation, it's going to be
down to the wire on what's going to get funded."

There's also a serious shortage of treatment programs in Howard and
elsewhere in Maryland. There are no inpatient drug treatment centers or
halfway houses in the county.

Mary Becraft, who stole checks to support her heroin habit, says something
must be done. "Howard County is so naive," she said in an interview from
jail last year. "They don't realize their kids are doing it, too."

Daniel Cabrera, a friend of Morgan Manca-Wells's, agrees.

"He was brilliant. He was one of the most well-spoken, passionate people.
He played the violin. But he was very much troubled," he said. "The whole
epidemic of this suburban heroin use was a big surprise to me. When this
came to light, I realized how prevalent it was."