Pubdate: Fri, 25 Apr 2014
Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Spokesman-Review
Contact:  http://www.spokesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417
Author: Shawn Vestal, The Spokesman-Review

SPOKANE COUNTY'S DRUG COURT SAVES MONEY, LIVES

When a trio of local legal experts  a retired judge, a former federal
prosecutor and a longtime local attorney  examined the criminal
justice system, they identified Spokane County's Drug Court as a
"pocket of excellence."

The court, which puts drug-addicted criminal offenders through a
yearlong march of treatment and intensive oversight in exchange for a
dismissal of their charges, drives down the recidivism rate and saves
money  and should be expanded, the Spokane Regional Criminal Justice
Commission concluded.

Jamie Hummell also has a high opinion of the court, but for more
personal reasons.

"I was in a dark place for a while," said Hummell, a 30-year-old
mother of two. "Drug Court saved my life, and changed my life. ... It
taught me how to live day to day, completely clean and sober. And, to
me, that's saving my life."

Hummel and five others graduated from Spokane County Behavioral Health
Therapeutic Drug Court on Thursday. It was among the largest monthly
graduation ceremonies for the court, which handles around 200 cases
yearly. Established in 1996, it was the first local example of a
"problem-solving court," which attempts to combine intense oversight,
treatment and services to help nonviolent offenders change their lives.

The county's mental health court and the city's fledgling community
court are other examples of the approach, which is aimed at stopping
the costly and ineffective revolving door to the jail.

"If you put an addict in jail, they come out of there an addict," said
Sandra Altshuler, the court's coordinator.

In Drug Court, felony offenders whose crimes are connected to their
addictions can qualify if they agree to the terms. Participants are
drug-tested regularly and must attend treatment and check in at court
frequently. If they miss appointments, they are sanctioned with
community service, and the court tailors their conditions  from
sanctions to incentives to their treatment plan  based on their progress.

Participants aren't kicked out if they fall off the wagon, so long as
they stick with the program and keep being tested. But before they
graduate they must accumulate at least four months of clean tests. It
is, for many of them, a difficult road full of setbacks.

"Originally ... people thought it was a soft-on-crime approach,"
Altshuler said. "But people have come to realize it is a hard-on-crime
approach  or hard on addicts."

Still, there is a human ingredient in Drug Court that participants
cite as a powerful force. From the judge to the attorneys to the
therapists, there is a steady stream of support and
encouragement.

"They really do stand by your side," said Jeremy Sparber, a
34-year-old who has tried many other types of addiction treatment
without success. "They give you every chance in the world to get it
right."

Nationwide, problem-solving courts are growing as the need for
alternatives to expensive and inexpensive warehousing of nonviolent
criminals. A 2011 national analysis of the courts, "Painting the
Current Picture: A National Report on Drug Courts and other
Problem-Solving Court Programs in the United States," concluded: "The
effectiveness of drug courts is not a matter of conjecture. It is the
product of more than two decades of exhaustive scientific research."

Spokane County's Drug Court has tracked the recidivism rate among its
population, and the results are dramatic, according to statistics
compiled by the court. From 2007 to 2011, the recidivism rate among
those who graduated was 11 percent in the two years after Drug Court,
compared to 52 percent among those who qualified for the program but
did not enter it.

Graduates spent a total of 5,211 days in jail in the two years before
entering the program, and that figure plummeted by 84 percent in the
two years after. Even those who fail to complete the program showed
improvement: The recidivism rate among those who quit the program was
36 percent, and the number of days spent in jail was much lower than
those who qualified but didn't enter.

The Washington State Institute for Public Policy has calculated that
every dollar spent in the types of treatment offered in drug court
return more than $40 in savings, in everything from crime to education
to social services.

At Thursday's graduation in the fourth-floor courtroom of Judge Ellen
Kalama Clark, it was standing room only. Family, friends, fellow Drug
Court members and court officials crowded into the room, which was
decorated with banners of congratulations. Cubes of cake sat on little
paper plates, and a row of gift bags and roses awaited the graduates.

"It is, without a doubt, the best day we have in this courthouse,"
said Kalama Clark, who took over the Drug Court a few months ago from
Judge Harold Clarke.

Sparber said he has struggled with addiction to heroin,
methamphetamine and alcohol for years. He has sought treatment in
various forms, including inpatient programs, but not until he landed
in trouble with the law and entered Drug Court has he been able to
quit, he said.

He was charged with possession of stolen property, among other things,
for having a bunch of stolen credit cards that he got through his
participation in "the drug game."

"I was so messed up I can't even tell you half the truth" about what
happened, he said.

Over the past year, though, he managed to get clean. He's also gotten
custody of his daughter and is moving toward adopting his
stepdaughter, found a place to live, and has been working part time
learning to fix cars. He's also got a sense of optimism about his
ability to stay clean.

"It's by far the best program I've ever been in in my life," he
said.

His daughters were in the crowd at Thursday's graduation. After all of
the speeches given by therapists and court officials and others, they
piped up: "Congratulations, we love you, and go Daddy!"

[image caption]

Jeremy Sparber hugs Jamie Hummell as they graduate from Spokane
County's Drug Court Thursday at the Spokane County Courthouse.
Criminal justice experts identified Drug Court as one of the "centers
of excellence" among the region's programs.  
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