Pot times July 15, 2005

It's Insane To Kill Drug Courts

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1118/a08.html
Newshawk: chip

Pubdate: Thu, 14 Jul 2005
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2005 The Charlotte Observer
Contact: opinion@charlotteobserver.com
Website: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Bob Ward, an assistant public defender in Mecklenburg County
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

IT'S INSANE TO KILL DRUG COURTS

N.C.  Legislature's Failure To Fund Drug Courts Will Be Costly To Public

We can't believe it.  This week, after 10 years of operation, we begin dramatically cutting drug treatment courts in Mecklenburg County and throughout the state.  Drug courts greatly improve public safety, save money and lives.  Yet there's no clear plan for funding, maintaining and implementing these courts locally or statewide.

Why? We in Charlotte are really not sure.  Not much clarity is coming from Raleigh.

We did hear that nearly $29 million was added to the state budget automatically because of the way this state funds prisons.  We heard that certain court fees and fines will increase the state budget by about $20 million, but the court system will see little if any of that money.  All it would take to fully fund the nearly 30 drug courts created statewide in the last 10 years is $3.5 million.

We also heard that the N.C.  Sentencing Commission has given recommendations in recent years that could have avoided a significant amount of prison budget expansion, but previous legislative sessions chose not to follow their advice.  Currently, the correctional system ranks about number three in our state's budget, behind education and health care.

Don't think that can't change for the worse.  Michigan Judge Harvey Hoffman was Judge of the Year in Michigan and works extensively in the drug treatment court field.  His remarks at a drug treatment court event in Charlotte explain why we need better policy concerning corrections and drug treatment courts:

"Ask any judge, or prosecutor or probation officer, and they will tell you that drugs and alcohol are the single most significant factors driving the criminal dockets of the nation.  And it's not limited to the possession of controlled substance or the drunk driving cases.  Drugs and alcohol impact a wide variety of cases.  For example:

- - 70 percent of all crimes against property in America are committed by persons with significant drug or alcohol problems.

- - Over 80 percent of all reported domestic violence cases have one or both of the family member involved being under the influence during the incident.

"...There was a time when be believed that by incarcerating users that we could stop recidivism of the drug and alcohol related cases in our courts.  Times change.

"The jails and prisons are full to bursting.  In my home state of Michigan the annual budget for the Department of Corrections is the largest single item of our state budget: larger than universities budget -- larger even then K-12 education.  We can't lock up all of our addicts and alcoholics.  We don't have the room and we don't have the money.  And when they come out, unchanged or changed for the worse, can we really be surprised when the majority of them swiftly re-offend?

"There was a time when we believed that by simply ordering our drug and alcohol offenders into treatment, we had found the way.  That surely if we provided them with knowledge and insight, they would see it was only rational for them to stop using or drinking.  Times change...

"If there is one great truth that has developed here in Mecklenburg County and around the nation over the last 10 years, it is that treatment, plus the accountability born in the court's ability to provide meaningful sanctions and rewards, enables us for the first time to reach addicts and alcoholics where they live.  We are attacking their underlying addictions.  We are changing their way of thinking, and thereby the way they lead their lives."

It is insane to ignore the truth presented by Judge Hoffman and experienced daily by those of us in the system.  May those who have the power and authority take heed.  For The Record offers commentaries from various sources.  The views are the writer's, and not necessarily those of the Observer editorial board.