Pubdate: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 Source: Los Angeles Times (CA) Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times Contact: Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053 Fax: (213) 237-7679 Feedback: http://www.latimes.com/siteservices/talk_contacts.htm Website: http://www.latimes.com/ Forum: http://www.latimes.com/discuss/ Author: Douglas Haberman Note: News from Inland Valley in the Times Community Newspapers original url http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/inland_empire/20010123/tiv0011337.html PROGRAM'S BENEFITS ARE BEING STUDIED Drug courts are designed to remove addicts from the criminal justice system once and for all by guiding them into sobriety. Do they work. "I see a big difference" in many of the addicts who go through drug court, said Karen Mouawad, a probation officer for 11 years who is now assigned exclusively to the Rancho Cucamonga drug court. "We're not going to save everybody," she said. "Some can't shake it. Some don't want to yet." San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Dennis Stout said his office supports the drug court with two reservations. First, prosecutors would like to see it directed at juveniles with the idea of turning addicts around earlier. Second, drug court only helps a tiny percentage of those who need it. "It's been effective for the very small number of people it can handle," Stout said. But he said the jury's still out on its long-term cost-effectiveness. The average yearly cost to keep someone in a California prison is $21,243, according to the state Department of Corrections. The average annual per-person cost of drug court in San Bernardino County is about $3,500 without residential treatment, officials said. The drug court in Rancho Cucamonga, one of six in San Bernardino County, began in 1998. Of the 262 who have enrolled in the program, 67 have graduated. Of the 99 who left the drug court program, 34 transferred to other programs better suited to their needs, such as mental health or perinatal programs. There are 96 people in the program today. The Rancho Cucamonga court is so new that no statistics are available on recidivism of program graduates -- the percentage who relapse into drug-related crime. Countywide, of 1,691 people who have enrolled in the six drug courts, 790 have graduated -- 46.7%. In the San Bernardino drug court, which started in late 1994 and is the oldest in the county, about 12% of graduates are arrested again within one year and about 23% after two years. Elizabeth Deschenes, a professor in the department of criminal justice at Cal State Long Beach, has studied Southern California drug courts over the past few years. "Many of the programs look like they're working," she said. In a study she conducted in Orange County in July 1999, 78% of the people enrolled in drug court stayed out of jail from the time they entered the program to a year later, she said. Among people who were simply placed on probation, Deschenes said 66% made it through the same period without getting arrested again. While further study might help clarify how cost-effective drug court is, the addicts it's helping do not doubt its effectiveness. Lynda Vanover, 35, of Rancho Cucamonga, said she began smoking marijuana at age 12 and since then has abused alcohol, cocaine, heroin and speed. The mother of three has been arrested 11 times and served time in jail, gone homeless for a stretch and hated herself through it all. She's been working on her recovery in drug court for six months. "This is the first time in 22 years I've been clean," Vanover said. "Drug court is the only thing that has helped me -- and I've been miserable for a long, long time." - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager