Pubdate: Tue, 10 Jul 2001
Source: The Herald-Sun (NC)
Copyright: 2001 The Herald-Sun
Contact:  http://www.herald-sun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

NONVIOLENT DRUG SUSPECTS: PROMISING IDEA

Durham's court system has a commendable history of trying different 
alternatives to jail time. Unfortunately, reality also has a way of 
derailing good intentions.

For example, because of high costs and broken equipment, Durham can 
no longer use electronic house arrest for some suspects awaiting 
trial. And Durham's domestic-violence court, an effort to expedite 
these cases and steer offenders into treatment, fell victim to this 
year's state budget crunch.

On the other hand, after a shaky start, drug court, which steers 
low-level drug offenders into treatment as an alternative to jail 
time, now looks as if it might fulfill some of its considerable 
potential. A similar effort now in the works also could steer more of 
Durham's low-level offenders into treatment sooner.

Court officials want to offer treatment evaluations to nonviolent 
drug offenders after they are arrested, rather than waiting until 
after a conviction, as is current practice. Suspects who agree to an 
evaluation would receive bail bonds low enough to allow them to get 
out of jail.

The details of this plan are not yet in stone, and court officials 
and attorneys have raised some concerns. The agency that would 
conduct the treatment evaluations - Treatment Alternatives to Street 
Crime - is already operating at capacity and has a waiting list. The 
Mental Health Adult Substance Abuse Program, which would treat these 
offenders, also is stretched thin.

Attorneys have raised questions about due process - whether this 
program would amount to coercion of defendants, and whether any 
disclosures made during an evaluation could be used against them. To 
his credit, District Attorney Jim Hardin Jr. has pledged that 
information obtained during a pretrial evaluation will not be used in 
court.

All of this questioning during the proposal stage is a good sign: It 
may produce a more effective program that avoids the ill fate of 
similar alternative-to-jail efforts. Hardin estimates that 80 percent 
of crimes have a drug-abuse component. A well-run program that can 
help people escape this cycle of self-destruction is worthy of all 
the support it can get.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe