October
22, 2009
Drug Courts Are the Most Sensible and Proven Alternative to
Incarceration: So What’s the Problem?
by West
Huddleston, Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Drug Court
Professionals
The National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers recently released a report criticizing 2,100 (there are actually
2,369) Drug Courts that offer effective treatment instead of
incarceration for drug addicted offenders. Instead, the NACDL calls for
the decriminalization of highly addictive drugs such as methamphetamine,
heroin and crack cocaine as the solution to the drug problem. According
to Cynthia Orr, President of the NACDL, “Drug Courts have not stymied
the rise in both drug abuse or exponentially increasing prison costs to
taxpayers” because, according to the NACDL report, “Drug Courts focus on
first-time or nonviolent offenders.” The evidence says differently.
It
is now 20 years since the first Drug Court was initiated and there has
been more research published on its effects than on virtually all other
criminal justice programs combined. The scientific community has put
Drug Courts under a microscope and concluded that Drug Courts work
better than jail or prison, better than probation, and better than
treatment alone. Most medications have less scientific evidence
supporting their safety and benefit to the public. The research is
unequivocal: Drug Courts significantly reduce drug abuse and crime and
do so at less expense than any other justice strategy; and according to
rigorous and replicated studies conducted by the University of
Pennsylvania, the more serious the offender’s drug addiction and length
of criminal record, the better Drug Courts work. Drug Courts are not for
the fist time or the non-addicted offender. Those individuals will do
just as well by diverting them to a disposition that leads to record
expungement upon successful completion of court conditions. Drug Courts
focus on high-value offenders; those who have the highest need for
treatment and other wrap-around services, and who have the highest risk
of failing out of those services without support and structure.
Research
demonstrates that nationwide, 70% of the approximately 120,000
seriously addicted individuals who voluntarily enter Drug Court with the
assistance of their defense attorney complete it a year or more later
and 75% of them remain arrest-free. A Drug Court participant is over
twice as likely to stay clean and remain arrest-free as a newly released
state inmate. Research also concludes that Drug Courts reduce drug
abuse and improve employment and family functioning. These effects are
not short-lived. The longest study on Drug Court to date shows these
outcomes last as much as14 years. And more research is coming out every
day.
Still, no one would argue that Drug Courts have realized
their full potential. Drug Courts have not been made available to
everyone who needs them. Half of U.S. counties do not have a Drug Court
and the Drug Courts that do exist only have capacity to serve 10% of
the serious drug-abusing and addicted offenders estimated to be in
need. That’s the real issue.
New York has implemented a Drug
Court in every county in the state. In a three year study, the New York
State Court System estimates that $254 million in incarceration costs
were saved by diverting 18,000 drug offenders into Drug Court. During
the entire fifteen-year time period Drug Courts have been in operation
throughout the state, New York has witnessed historic reductions in
crime. And through the first half of this year, crime has fallen
another 4.7 percent. According to a recent Northwestern University
report, alternatives to incarceration like Drug Courts could lead to the
closing of four half-empty adult prisons in New York. And a number of
states such as Alabama, Missouri, New Jersey and Texas, among others,
are following suit. In fact, in 2008, 44 state budgets included a
specific appropriation for Drug Courts, totaling $208,000,000
nationwide. The Obama Administration and Congress is also investing in
new Drug Courts and increasing the capacity of the 2,369 Drug Court
already in existence in all fifty states and U.S. territories with a
250% increase in federal appropriations from the year before. That’s a
great start, but far from what we need to reach the 1.2 million
seriously drug abusing or addicted offenders who need treatment.
If
no other sentencing option can compare with its success, shouldn’t we
finish the job and give everyone who needs it access to these
life-saving courts? It’s simple really. Drug Courts remain constrained
by limited resources and by the more popular thinking that an alcoholic
or addict can be punished out of their dependence.
It is no
secret that prison has accomplished little to stem the tide of crime or
drug abuse. Upon their release from prison, between 60% and 80% of drug
abusers commit a new crime (typically a drug-related crime) and 85% to
95% relapse quickly to drug abuse. In some states, such as
California, more than 75% will be returned to prison. And amazingly,
these disappointing figures have done little to curb prison spending.
National expenditures on corrections well exceed $60 billion annually.
On average, states spend $65,000 per bed, per year to build new prisons
and $23,876 per bed, per year to operate them
Unfortunately, it
is also not sufficient to simply offer more treatment. Left to their
own devices without intensive supervision by a judge, approximately 25%
of offenders never arrive for a single treatment session. And among
those who do show for treatment, most drop out prematurely before
receiving any benefits. The power and authority of the Court is
necessary to keep them engaged in treatment long enough to experience
any lasting gains.
Drug Courts are judicially supervised court
dockets that strike the proper balance between the need to help addicted
offenders get free from the gasp of drugs and the need to protect
community safety; between the need for effective treatment and the need
to hold people accountable for their actions; between hope and
redemption on the one hand and productive citizenship on the other. Drug
Courts keep drug-addicted individuals engaged in treatment for long
periods of time, while supervising them closely and holding them
accountable for their obligations to society, their families and
themselves. Participants are regularly and randomly tested for drug use,
required to appear frequently in court for the judge to review their
progress, and immediately receive rewards for doing well and sanctions
for not living up to their obligations. All of this with one simple
goal; get the addict clean and sober.
And everybody benefits
when an addict gets clean and sober in Drug Court. The most conservative
estimates by researchers show that for every 1.00 invested in Drug
Court, $3.36 are saved by the justice system and up to $12.00 (per $1
investment) are saved by the community on reduced emergency room visits
and other medical care, foster care, and property loss.
In Drug
Court, we have an effective intervention that is not being fully
implemented. Now is not the time to change course. It is our hope that a
drug-addicted citizen should not need to be arrested in order to
receive the help they require. But for the 1.2 million drug-addicted
arrestees currently involved in the adult criminal justice system, the
verdict is in: Drug Court is the solution and the passport to a new way
of life. Now we must make the investment and finish the job.