THE TREATMENT DIFFERENCE

Summit County Gets Smart. It Opts For A Drug Court

Judge Mary Spicer of the Summit County Common Pleas Court noted what many
of her colleagues, here and elsewhere, have: Illegal drugs and drug
addiction play overwhelming roles in the system of criminal justice. Spicer
knows the frustration of defendants caught in a revolving door, traveling
from the streets to jail and back.

The challenge becomes how to break the destructive cycle. Summit County
judges have rightly opted for one promising tool, a treatment- based drug
court. The court is expected to open in the spring. Judge Spicer will
preside. The purpose is to provide nonviolent felony offenders with an
avenue to break their drug addiction and abandon lives of crime.

Stark County has a drug court. Judge Elinore Stormer of the Akron Municipal
Court launched a drug court for misdemeanants. Both have proved beneficial,
following the trend reported in national studies of reduced crime and
costs. Statistics show offenders are less likely to be rearrested once
they've participated.

Police officers have applauded the program. Provide incentives to break a
drug habit (in the end, erasing a conviction), and the community positions
itself to win twice: A citizen becomes productive, and taxpayers save money.

A drug court also suggests the larger challenge of dealing with the wide
range of issues involving mental health and addiction. Treatment works, as
long as it is adequate and consistent. So would parity in insurance
coverage for mental-health care, a question now before the legislature. In
most instances, mental illness can be treated like a physical ailment.

The Golden Globes honored A Beautiful Mind, the movie of version of the
life of John Nash, the brilliant mathematician afflicted with
schizophrenia. Others have saluted the show, usually with the hope that
greater understanding of mental illness will follow. The Summit County
Common Pleas Court has taken its own enlightened approach. Often mental
illness and drug addiction go together. So do treatment and productive lives.