Athens-Clarke County Courts Get Money To Help Fight Crime
August 27, 2007
Amelia Hines
WNEG NewsCHANNEL 32
Friday, August 24, 2007
Judge David Sweat has seen a lot of criminals during his five years on the bench in Clarke County. But he sees even more of repeat offenders. He says sometimes he gets 3 or 4 each week in his courtroom alone.
“These individuals are what we call in the justice system “frequent flyers.” They’re in and out. They’re coming back again and again,” Sweat tells NewsChannel 32.
These frequent flyers are also known to be criminals who have mental illnesses like schizophrenia or manic-depression. Others have drug addictions that lead them to commit offenses.
“It can be anything from criminal trespass which is being in some place after you’ve been barred.”
Others get caught passing forged checks for a little cash or petty theft.
In most cases, these offenders are just trying to get by the only way they know how.
“They may be homeless; there may be very few options. And the only option in the past we’ve had to offer them is jail time. And jail doesn’t address the problems that lead to their criminal behavior,” Judge Sweat says.
Sweat has been working 2 years to get a grant to stop this cycle. He says a $45,000 grant will help start a program to deal with these types of offenders. Part of that program is setting up a “Mental Health Court.”
After offenders are released from jails and hospitals, they aren’t left to fend for themselves like before. Through the “Treatment and Accountability” Court, they’ll have judicial supervision to help them transition back into the community.
That supervision will include weekly visits to keep updates on their status. The program will also help them seek treatment for problems and hold them accountable if they slip up.
But it doesn’t end there; other agencies throughout the community will be there to help them along the way.
If everything goes as planned, the “Treatment and Accountability” Court will be running by early 2008.
Cracking the drunk driving problem: Fulton offers some answers
August 17, 2007
New program combines lots of help for long-term offenders, tough sanctions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/17/07
Two defendants showed up drunk this summer at the Fulton County Courthouse.While that’s never a good idea, it’s especially problematic considering it was their first day in a new program for repeat DUI offenders.State Court Judge Susan Forsling says the men’s condition in court underscores the grip of addiction and the need for courts to find creative solutions to break the dangerous cycle of drinking and driving. She and Judge Brenda Cole have agreed to head Fulton County’s inaugural DUI Court program, which got under way in June combining some jail time with intensive treatment and heavy monitoring. The program, with a startup budget of $45,000, is funded through county and state money and participant fees. The first class includes a defendant with 14 prior DUI convictions. When he appeared before Forsling last month she somberly said: “You have failed the system and the system has failed you.” The man wept.But as the judge addressed her new class Aug. 9, she tempered her judgment with humor and hope. She assembled probation officers and mental health counselors and talked with each defendant about his or her problems. One man seemed surprised the judge knew that he and his wife were separated and he was having trouble finding a place to live due to his criminal record.“There’s not going to be too much about your life that I don’t know about,” Forsling said with a laugh.
Barbara Lattimore, director of Fulton County’s mental health department, said two main things help stop recidivism: peer support and heavy sanctions. Her employees are part of the DUI Court program, providing one-on-one and group counseling to help participants explore the reasons they drink. Participants also face frequent drug screenings, random home visits by probation officers and court hearings before a judge who gets to know them personally.
Georgia has a dozen DUI Courts, including programs in Gwinnett, Cherokee, Clayton, Hall and Rockdale counties. It’s part of a national trend to move toward courts that tackle special problems. Fulton officials are modeling their program after the one in Athens-Clarke County.
The judge there, Kent Lawrence, started Georgia’s first DUI Court in February 2001 and is considered a national expert, recently speaking before a congressional committee in Washington. Lawrence is a former police officer and police chief in Clarke County who worked plenty of alcohol-fueled fatal wrecks and was motivated to find a solution.
“I’ve had victims die in my arms,” he said. “I’ve had to knock on doors and tell their parents or their spouses their loved one just died because of an alcohol-related wreck. It’s usually the same reaction: they fall on their knees and start screaming.”
Lawrence remembers those haunting images when drunk drivers stand before him in his courtroom and he sentences them to jail. But, like Judge Forsling, he is also driven by compassion to get to the root of what draws the alcoholic to the bottle.
“They’re not bad people,” Forsling said. “They don’t wake up that morning and say: ‘I’m going to get in my car, crash and kill somebody.’ “
Statewide, impaired drivers were involved in crashes that killed nearly 545 people in 2005, the last year for which figures were available, said Alvin Shultz, epidemiologist for the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
Bob Dallas, the Highway Safety office’s director, said the Athens judge is helping break the cycle.
“It’s a program that seems to show success for a very difficult offender — someone who has been drinking and driving for years,” Dallas said.
Someone like Alpharetta area resident Justin Dinsmore, 30.
He admits he started drinking at age 12 and drove drunk in at least three counties for years, crashing cars, a motorcycle and four-wheelers. He said he got into several high-speed chases with police, but usually outran them in his high-powered Mustang.
But as he sped recklessly through Athens a few years ago, police closed in and Dinsmore found himself standing before Judge Lawrence.
As Dinsmore recalls, the judge was irate, tossing the four-time convicted drunk driver into the slammer for 15 months. That’s when Dinsmore said he had an epiphany: “I’m either going to be dead or in jail the rest of my life if I keep this up.” He thought about his dreams for a wife and kids and how he needed to be sober and responsible to make that happen.
The judge was there to help. He said you can often see participants begin to make life changes in up to three months.
“It’s like a light bulb,” the judge said. “It gives us chills. Their attitude changes and their appearance changes.”
Dinsmore completed the DUI Court program in 13 months and says he’s been sober for two years.
“This isn’t a program for a first offender. It’s for someone like me, someone on their last leg,” Dinsmore said of the structured program, which includes surprise home visits and lots of drug screenings. “It put me on the path of where I needed to go.”
Veteran defense attorney William “Bubba” Head, known nationally for his specialty in DUI law, said he has qualms about the program, which requires defendants to plead guilty to DUI charges.
“If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t do the program,” said Head, who often prefers to take his clients’ cases to trial.
He said he worries that the program is too rigid and if a participant fails to show up to court, fails a screening or doesn’t check in with his or her probation officer, they’ll end up kicked out of the program and behind bars for up to two years.
The judges in Athens and Atlanta say there are other types of sanctions besides revoking the defendant’s probation, which is reserved for more serious violations.
Head acknowledges that more needs to be done to stop drunk driving.
“It can destroy your life,” said the lawyer, whose DUI clients have included clergy, teachers and Supreme Court justices in several states.
To view the entire article: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/08/17/dui_0818.html
NADCP Applauds Ten Year Drug Court Study Revealing Continued Reduced Recidivism and Cost Savings
August 15, 2007
Tuesday August 14, 2:45 pm ET
Study examines the impact of a single drug court on the total population of drug court-eligible offenders over a 10-year period in Portland, Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP), the principal advocacy organization for 20,000 drug court practitioners nationwide, supports the findings of NPC Research, funded under a grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice, drawn from a comprehensive ten year drug court study. The “Multnomah County Drug Court” in Portland, Oregon, is the second oldest in the United States. The study titled The Impact of a Mature Drug Court over 10 Years of Operation: Recidivism and Costs shows significantly reduced recidivism for drug court participants up to 14 years after drug court entry and major cost savings to tax payers.Research Results:
-- The drug court significantly reduced the incidence and frequency of criminal recidivism for participants compared to offenders who did not participate. -- The incidence of re-arrest was reduced by nearly 30% after five years. -- Investment costs in the drug court program were $1,392 less per person than the investment costs of court "business-as-usual." -- Savings due to reduced recidivism for drug court participants totaled more than $79 million over the 10-year period. -- Drug court judges that worked longer with the drug court had better participant outcomes. Judges that rotated through the drug court twice had better participant outcomes the second time than the first. This study covers the period from program start in 1991 through 2001. The entire population of offenders identified as eligible for drug court by the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office from 1991 to 2001 was tracked through a variety of administrative data systems. Approximately 11,000 cases were identified; 6,500 participated in the drug court program during that period and 4,600 had their case processed outside the drug court model. Data on outcomes were gathered on each offender, with a particular emphasis on criminal recidivism per participant. The outcome data were drawn in late 2005 and early 2006, allowing a minimum of 5 years of follow-up on all cohorts and more than 10 years on many cohorts. Data on costs were calculated in terms of investment costs, outcome costs over 5 years, and total costs.
“This study validates the long-term effectiveness of drug courts through reduced drug use and criminal recidivism as well as cost savings to the community,” said West Huddleston, Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP). “Simply put, drug courts save lives, reduce crime and save tax payers money. The Multnomah County Drug Court has demonstrated once again that drug court is the best solution for addicted citizens caught in the justice system. Drug courts must be taken to scale; ensuring all addicted offenders in every county in America receives the best chance of a drug and crime-free future.”
About NADCP
The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) and the National Drug Court Institute (NDCI) are responsible for advocacy, training, research and scholarship on behalf of drug courts nationwide. With more than 1,900 drug courts nationwide, and 500 more in planning stages, drug courts have experienced phenomenal success and tremendous growth by reducing substance abuse, crime and recidivism. Since 1994, NADCP has represented over 20,000 judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, treatment providers and rehabilitation experts, law enforcement and corrections personnel, educators, researchers and community leaders.
For more information, visit www.nadcp.org.
Contact:
NADCP Jennifer Columbel, 703-575-9400, ext 14 cell: 703-731-0966
(to view article)…http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070814/20070814006095.html?.v=1
CSG Justice Center Updates Mental Health Court Website
August 6, 2007
NADCP is pleased to announce…
CSG Justice Center Updates Mental Health Court Website Featuring BJA Learning Sites
The Council of State Governments Justice Center has updated its mental health court website to make information on the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) learning sites more accessible. These five mental health courts, which have been serving as learning sites since being selected by BJA in June 2006, are:
- Akron Municipal Mental Health Court (OH)
- Bonneville County Mental Health Court (ID)
- Bronx County Mental Health Court (NY)
- Dougherty Superior Court (GA)
- Washoe County Mental Health Court (NV)
The learning sites host site visits, hold conference calls, and respond to e-mail inquiries from people interested in starting a mental health court or improving their current program. The learning sites also work with the Justice Center, the technical assistance provider for this program, to improve their own processes and procedures. Snapshots of each of the learning sites, along with longer program descriptions, can now be downloaded on the website to help potential visitors to select a learning site.
All of the information needed to set up a visit is also accessible on the site. Interested parties can consult the site visit calendar, which lists some of the dates that are available for visits, and can download a visit request form and submit it to Lauren Almquist (almquist@csg.org or fax: 212-383-5743). The Justice Center has created a site visit observation tool to guide jurisdictions through their visits, as well as an evaluation form to report on the visits’ usefulness.
The Justice Center’s mental health court website also houses other resources, such as the BJA mental health court publications, links to relevant media articles and research, and a link to the Justice Center’s mental health court survey. The Justice Center encourages court personnel to complete a survey so that their programs may be profiled in the Justice Center’s Criminal Justice / Mental Health Information Network (InfoNet), a comprehensive database that inventories programs, research, and media. Click here for more information on the InfoNet.
To view the Justice Center’s mental health court webpage, visit http://consensusproject.org/mhcp.
Sheen Asks Congress to Fund Drug Court
August 3, 2007
Martin Sheen, © AP
The Associated Press, Jun 17, 12:09 PM EST
WASHINGTON – Martin Sheen says a drug court saved the life of a friend of his who was self-destructing from drug and alcohol abuse.
The actor was in Washington this past week to urge Congress to provide funding for drug courts, which provide addicts with lifesaving alternatives to prison.
Sheen told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he used his friend, whom he did not name, as an example as someone whose addiction could have led to death.
“At a critical point, I had to decide who would speak at the funeral, who should carry the casket,” he said. “You have to be prepared to say ‘I did everything that I possibly could.’
“Well, I had not yet. I had one more option, and that was drug court. That’s what saved his life, and mine,” Sheen said.
He said a large percentage of prison inmates are incarcerated for committing crime under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
“So it’s a very serious problem and very costly,” he said. “And the monies that are spent on drug court and training and in rehab, the dollars are the biggest bargain you can possibly get in public health.”
