Pubdate: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC) Copyright: 2005 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc. Contact: http://www.journalnow.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504 Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily home delivery circulation area. Author: Lisa Hoppenjans, Journal Reporter DRUG-TREATMENT COURT SHOWS SHARP DROP IN PARTICIPANTS Loss Of 2 Probation Officers, DA's Policy Blamed For Fall-Off Fewer people completed Forsyth County's drug-treatment court program last year than in any full year since the program began, a drop that the court's director attributes to a change in the district attorney's policies and the loss of two probation officers assigned to the court. The court program, which was started in 1996, graduated only eight participants last year, compared with 23 in 2003 and 25 the year before that. The program's graduation rate, which had hovered between 38 percent and 64 percent for the previous four years, was only 23 percent last year. Gene Williams, the director of the county's drug-treatment court, said that District Attorney Tom Keith's decision to stop offering offenders the chance to avoid a conviction by completing the program has removed a crucial incentive that drew participants to the program and motivated them to complete it. Williams said that the reassignment of two intensive-probation officers assigned to the court also affected the graduation rate. The officers closely monitored all of the program's participants, not just those on court-ordered probation. Williams said he is working with the local probation and parole office to come up with ways to bridge the gap in services. The drug court serves nonviolent offenders who are accused of drug-related misdemeanors, as well as felonies in the lowest two classes. Participants undergo a rigorous 12- to 18-month program that includes court appearances twice a month, treatment sessions, support-group meetings, frequent random drug tests and unannounced home visits. In September 2003, the drug-treatment court changed from a pre-plea and post-plea court to post-plea only. The pre-plea option, which required the cooperation of the district attorney, allowed defendants to have their charges dropped if they successfully completed the program. Under the post-plea option, defendants are convicted of the offense and ordered by a judge to complete the program instead of being incarcerated. Keith said he made the change because the state's Administrative Office of the Courts took control of all the drug courts in the state, shifting control of Forsyth's program from his office to the chief District Court judge. Keith said that his office would be held responsible if charges were dismissed against a drug-court participant and that person subsequently committed a major crime. He said that he was not willing to shoulder that responsibility without control over the program and its employees. "I'm not going to have responsibility without control," Keith said. "The state wanted to take it over. We're out of it." Pete Clary, the Forsyth County chief public defender, said that since the changes, the attorneys in his office have referred far fewer clients to drug-treatment court. "There's much less incentive for us to send a client to drug court," Clary said. "Before, they jumped all over it." Williams said that post-plea clients also tend to have a much higher turnover rate than those who can avoid a conviction by entering the program before making a plea. "Pre-plea clients have more to gain.... It means a lot to people to get that off their record," Williams said. "The people with pre-pleas don't drop out of this program." One big reason is jobs. A woman in the program, who asked to be identified only as Winifred, said she attended college, served in the military and held supervisory positions at work before she became addicted to drugs. But a drug-trafficking conviction has made it difficult for her to find work now. "That felony on my record is a hold on me," Winifred said.