DAY REPORTING FINDS WIDESPREAD SUPPORT

Prosecutor Sees Program As Weapon In War On Drugs

It is difficult to find someone with a discouraging word about
Vanderburgh County's Day Reporting Drug Court, a program that provides
an alternative to imprisonment for substance abusers facing felony
charges. Law-enforcement officials, though among the most cautious,
have good things to say. A deputy prosecutor who heads up drug cases -
a hard-liner on drug dealers and violent drug offenders - is on the
court's advisory board and has gone to bat to get addicted offenders
into the program.

"I do not think those two viewpoints are diametrically opposed," says
Michael Perry, the deputy prosecuting attorney who has headed
Vanderburgh County's drug-case prosecutions for two years. "It's kind
of a two-pronged attack from our office: One, cut the source, and two,
cut the demand. By putting the violent and dealers off the street,
we're cutting the supply, and by getting those people help who need
help, we're cutting the demand."

The local drug court is in its infancy - it accepted its first
participant April 9.

At the end of 2000, the National Drug Court Institute, which gets
federal funding from the Executive Branch, the Justice Department and
the office of National Drug Control Policy, reported 687 drug courts
in operation nationwide. Vanderburgh County's will be a part of 2001's
statistics. The stakes are big.

Addiction wreaks devastation on the lives of addicts and the people
who love them. And ultimately, no one is left untouched. Those who are
not direct victims of crimes done by addicts still pay a high price.

The cost of virtually every consumer good and service carries what
amounts to a hidden surcharge to cover shoplifting and crimes
committed to support addictions.

And consider the crippling effect of drug-related offenses on the
judicial system and the gigantic financial burden on governments to
jail and imprison offenders.

It's easy to see why there's a search for alternatives that
work.

In Miami 12 years ago, the Circuit Court of Dade County marshalled a
judge's authority to help devise and oversee an intensive,
high-accountability, community-based program to treat and rehabilitate
felony drug offenders. That drug-infested jurisdiction saw sooner what
Evansville saw later: Escalating penalties for drug offenses,
triggered by a drug-abuse epidemic that raged beginning in the
mid-1980s, did little to curtail drug and alcohol crimes but soon
packed jails and prisons beyond capacity. That quickly became a
serious public-safety issue, since it reduced space needed to imprison
violent and career felons.

The court and confinement overload was at the center of Circuit Judge
Carl Heldt's "State of the Judiciary" address before the Evansville
Bar Association earlier this year. Heldt estimates - and other judges
and magistrates in the Vanderburgh County judicial system
overwhelmingly agree - that "75 to 85 percent of all cases that come
before the felony courts are somehow related to drugs and alcohol."

Drug courts bring together judges, drug and alcohol treatment
providers, law-enforcement authorities, prosecutors and defense
lawyers as a team to administer a high-demand, intensely supervised
and tightly structured rehabilitation program under the direction of a
judge. The goal: ending a participant's drug and alcohol dependence
and the criminal and antisocial behavior connected to it.

The Vanderburgh County program borrows liberally from predecessor
programs where accountability has always been a key component. The
local program enhances accountability by issuing a pager to each
participant and by requiring them to report to the staff every day at
the beginning of the program and a minimum of twice a week in the
final phase.

Superior Court Judge Wayne S. Trockman, who presides over the Drug
Court, and Debbie Mowbray, executive director of the program, believe
the day-reporting feature makes Vanderburgh County's program unique.

"Day reporting" means that every day, including weekends and holidays,
program participants early-on in their involvement - and until they
earn a lessening of requirements by staying clean and sober and
meeting other program requirements - must report to a staff member.
For participants who have lost drivers licenses, which is not uncommon
among substance abusers, it means they must do a lot of walking or
work out sometimes difficult transportation arrangements. Whatever it
takes. There are no exceptions.

Trockman has been known to staff weekend check-ins at the SAFE
House.

"It's especially important that they are monitored on weekends and
holidays," Mowbray said. "That's because holidays are times when a lot
of people Ouse.'"

Bill Carey, director of the Indiana Judicial Center, said he likes
another feature he has not seen in other drug court program in the
state: beepers. All Vanderburgh participants are required to wear
court-issued pagers and wear them at all times.

Only Drug Court staffers know the beeper numbers - so when one
activates, participants know it's the Drug Court calling.

Steve Bequette, commander of the Criminal Investigation section at the
Sheriff's Office, gave high marks to Trockman and Mowbray.

"I think that so far, the judge and Ms. Mowbray have done an excellent
job, communication-wise. They reached out to law-enforcement right
away. They explained everything they were planning to do. They have
been very up-front about the program. As far as that angle, I am very
pleased with it," Bequette said.

Law-enforcement is represented on the Drug Court Advisory Board, and
Bequette attends meetings of the local Substance Abuse Council, which
include Trockman and Mowbray.

Bequette said law-enforcement is consulted on individual candidates
for the program. "When they have candidates, they reach out to us to
let us know who they're considering. And we let them know what our
feelings are toward that candidate."

Advice from police is taken seriously, Bequette said: "I don't think
they would reach out and ask us for our opinion if they didn't put a
value on it."