State Cuts Funds to Drug Courts

Published August 19, 2008 The Courier Herald Online http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=909&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1379274&om=1

The funding cuts that have swept across the board of state agencies have reached the state’s drug courts and the program that touts a recividism rate of less than 10 percent.On Monday, the Dublin Judicial Circuit’s drug court received notification that the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) appropriations for FY 2009, which includes drug court funding, will be reduced by six to 10 percent. In a letter to Georgia’s drug court coordinators, the chairman of the AOC’s Standing Committee on Drug Courts, Judge George H. Kreeger, attributed the cuts to the continued decline in state revenues. On August 7th, Governor Sonny Perdue announced a six percent cut for all state departments in order to shore up a potential state budget deficit of $1.6 billion in FY 2009. The initial announcement hit the state’s superior courts hard. The mandated cuts translates to a 60 percent cut in the courts’ operating budget, since the bulk of the courts’ budgets are salaries set under Georgia code for judges and their staff. As a result, the use of senior judges in the courts has been suspended.      In his letter to the drug courts, Keeger said, “In order to be proactive, the decision has been made to reserve 10 percent of your court’s 2009 grant budget until the state revenue concerns are resolved.” The 10 percent cut translates to about $1,900 – not a large amount in comparison to other department cuts. However the Dublin Judicial Circuit’s four county drug court operates annually on only $19,000. The funding the drug courts receive pays for drug testing kits and mental health evaluations for the program’s participants. “We won’t help less people, we’ll just have to tighten everything we spend,” said Jeannine Lloyd, coordinator of the Dublin Judicial Circuit’s drug court. The Drug Court Objective The original objective of drug courts was to reduce the rate of recidivism (a relapse into criminal behavior) for drug usage. The state’s first operational drug court started in Bibb County in 1994. Five years later the Dublin Judicial Circuit’s drug court began. The AOC introduced the drug courts as an innovative solution to handle the increasing number of felony drug related offenses. Judge William Riley of the Atlanta Community Court had praised the drug court concept when he stated, “traditional sentences may punish offenders, but do not address underlying problems an individual may have.” Rather than sending defendants to jail, drug courts focus on rehabilitating drug and alcohol offenders through treatment. A superior court judge may sentence an offender to drug court treatment and order the offender perform community service. Unlike traditional treatment programs, becoming “clean and sober” is only the first step toward drug court graduation. The 12 month program requires participants to attend two meetings a week and they are drug tested at each meeting. Upon graduation from the program, the drug charges are dismissed. After they have become clean and sober, participants are required to obtain a GED, maintain employment, stay current in all their financial obligations, including drug court fees and they must avoid places and persons of an undesirable nature. Within the year, Lloyd said most gravitate away from their old crowd and aligned with new, more suitable individuals. In 1998, the Department of Justice Technical Assistance Project and the Drug Court Clearinghouse analyzed the effectiveness of drug courts. The report stated: “Incarceration in and of itself does little to break the cycle of illegal drug use and crime, and offenders sentenced to incarceration for substance related offenses exhibit a high rate of recidivism once they are released.”      The report determined drug courts provide four specific areas of appeal: •more effective supervision of offenders in the community; •greater accountability of defendants to comply with the conditions of their release or probation; •greater coordination and accountability of public services, including reducing duplication of services and costs to the taxpayer; •and the creation of more efficient courts systems by removing minor drug offenders from the court systems that are already overloaded with cases. The program’s success rate is undeniable according to those who work in the local drug court. Lloyd calculated the success rate of all those who attended the program between 1999 and 2007. Her records indicate that 40 percent of those who attended drug court successfully graduated. Only 10% of the participants repeated their crimes after graduation, dramatically lower than the recidivism rate for non-drug court offenders. In a 15-state study by the Department of Justice, data showed that without rehabilitation, over two-thirds of released prisoners were rearrested within three years. The highest percentage of repeat offenders was among drug users. The Justice Department study stated, “The outcomes drug courts are achieving go far beyond these original goals: the birth of over 500 drug free babies to drug court participants; the reunification of hundreds of families, as parents regain or are able to retain custody of their children; education and vocational training and job placements for participants, to name a few.” “The program works,” said Lloyd. “We’ll just have to figure out how to do more with less.”