Pubdate: Sun, 11 May 2014
Source: Indiana Gazette (PA)
Copyright: Indiana Printing & Publishing Co. 2014
Contact:  http://www.indianagazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2601
Author: Heather Blake
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

A Sobering Story

DRUG COURT OFFERS A SECOND CHANCE

On a recent Thursday at the Indiana County Court House, District 
Attorney Patrick Dougherty gathered in a courtroom with fellow 
members of the county's drug treatment court team and discussed the 
week's progress of several offenders in the program.

There was no talk of fines and sentence lengths, just words of 
encouragement, even if tough.

One man was having difficulty holding a job, so to keep moving in the 
right direction, it was recommended that he bring five copies of 
completed job applications with him to his weekly court sessions.

"You know I get on your rear end; obviously I do it for a reason - I 
want you to succeed," Dougherty told him. "There's something about 
you that makes me want to kick you in the ass sometimes.

"I need you to step it up, get a job, get it done so (the rest of the 
team) can get off my back for being so mean to you," he joked.

In another case, the team learned a defendant was late to a recent 
group meeting due to work and having to care for his child. Even 
though he had called to say he was going to be late, Dougherty warned 
him: "That sends up a red flag. Things like that make us concerned."

"You're doing well," Dougherty told him. "We don't want to see you 
get so frustrated that you go back to a bad place."

The young man told Dougherty he was going to start looking for a new 
job with hours that work better for him because his recovery comes first.

"This program is to set you up for life," Dougherty said. "Get a good 
work history, get a good recommendation and move forward."

This is the weekly routine for this six-member team of the treatment 
court. For the people who enter the program, it's a life-saving second chance.

And for the drug treatment court team, it's an opportunity to help 
the addicted overcome their disease and once again become productive 
members of society.

The court is an alternative sentencing program intended to steer 
certain nonviolent defendants - those whose drug or alcohol abuse is 
at the root of their criminal activity - into recovery instead of 
into a prison cell. It's a rigorous program, and those who are 
admitted subject themselves to extensive monitoring and rehabilitation.

Even requests for activities or visits to see a friend or family 
member are at the sole discretion of the team because it could be a 
trigger for the offender to relapse.

For example, one participant requested to visit his grandmother and 
to go to a gym. Dougherty told him that the team's probation officer 
would follow up with him about visiting his grandmother, but denied 
the gym request because the client is on house arrest.

"As long as you put forth a great effort, we'll help you" move off 
house arrest, Dougherty said.

The court is overseen by a six-member team made up of Indiana County 
President Judge William Martin; Dougherty; Chief Probation Officer 
Michael Hodak; Lisa Prebish, a case manager with the 
Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission; Amanda Yurky, 
a probation officer; and criminal defense attorney Thomas G. Johnson. 
Barb Elkin, a licensed professional counselor at The Open Door, also 
serves on the team in an advisory capacity.The court is one of 31 in 
Pennsylvania. Indiana County created its treatment court in January 
2007 as a way to deal with a growing number of drug-related cases.

Martin said he likes the program and continues to be involved because 
he gets tired of "sending people to prison and we're just warehousing 
them and there's no treatment. And when they do get out, they're 
going to re-offend in a continuous cycle," he said.

"In treatment court, we get to break that cycle and don't have to 
have them come back time and time again," he said. "They're able to 
learn how to address their addiction and live drug-free."

It's a voluntary program, and when a defendant applies for admission, 
he or she is interviewed, given a drug and alcohol assessment, and 
eventually appears before the drug court team.

The team votes on whether to accept the defendant. At least four 
members must vote in favor of accepting a defendant. Dougherty said 
the team considers, among other things, the defendant's age, the 
crime he or she committed, any previous attempts at treatment and 
their drug of choice. Most who enter the program - about 60 percent - 
have been abusing heroin or some other opiate.

Defendants also are commonly using marijuana, alcohol and crack 
cocaine.Upon entering the program, defendants essentially give up 
control of their lives and surrender themselves to intensive 
monitoring and oversight by way of house arrest, home visits and 
frequent random drug testing. Defendants also have to seek approval 
on where they can work and live, Dougherty said.

The program usually begins with a 30- to 90-day stay in a residential 
treatment facility, depending on an addict's level of need, Dougherty 
said. From there, the defendant will "step down" to a halfway house 
for anywhere from three to six months.

Afterward, the defendant returns home and is placed on house arrest, 
their movements electronically monitored usually for 60 to 90 days. 
They may also have to wear an electronic bracelet that can detect 
whether they have been drinking.

Offenders are given "windows" during their house arrest to attend 
out-patient treatment at The Open Door and support group meetings, 
such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.

Additionally, participants meet regularly with their case manager and 
probation officer.

"As they earn their freedom back, as they elevate through the 
program, some of our restrictions fall away," Dougherty said.

Every Thursday the team meets to hear reports from Prebish and Yurky 
on the progress of each defendant in the program. And the team makes 
decisions related to the defendant as a whole.

"That's the part I like about it - everyone's in the room and has a 
say, and no one's vote outweighs anyone else's," Martin said. "We've 
taken some votes where I've been on the losing end," he said.

Defendants in the program must follow a strict set of rules, and if 
someone slips up by, say, failing a drug test, the team must 
determine what sanctions will be imposed. Those can range from 
sending the individual back to a treatment program, some time in 
jail, or expulsion from the program, Dougherty said. People who are 
expelled are sentenced as they would have been had they not entered 
the program.

The number of participants in the program at any given time varies - 
as some graduate, others are admitted, Dougherty said.

Martin said the program has had as many as 18 participants in it at 
one time and as few as seven or eight. Right now, there are 10 or 11 
people in drug treatment court, Martin said.

Dougherty said that for a while, the numbers seemed to be down a little bit.

"People in the jail were saying, 'Don't do that program; it's too 
hard. Just go to jail and do your time.' But the numbers have turned 
around, and I think we're seeing more applications over the last six 
months than we've seen in a while," he said.

Drug treatment court, with its treatment-intensive focus and many 
requirements, isn't for everyone, and some, in fact, choose to serve 
their sentence instead of entering the program.

Dougherty lauds what the program has done for its graduates.

"The people that graduate from our program are employed, paying 
taxes. They are clean, and they now have some job skills. And they're 
building positive work histories," he said, emphasizing that getting 
a job is one of the program's requirements.

In its time, roughly 100 people have participated in the program, 
Martin said. Thirty-two have successfully completed it, reclaiming 
themselves from the destructive grip addiction held on their lives.

Of the ones who have graduated, Martin said, quite a few are now 
gainfully employed. There's at least one who is close to graduating 
from college. And others have spent years being sober and are leading 
good lives and holding jobs in trades such as electricians, painters 
and carpenters.

Martin said the people in program have been involved with the 
criminal justice system for extended periods of time, so it's 
rewarding to see them turn their lives around.

"You see who the real person is, not the addict or the person they 
were when they were on drugs," Martin said.

As rewarding as it is to see the change in an offender from beginning 
to end, those involved in the program aren't the only ones who 
benefit. Society does, too.

"Although (the defendants) are being serviced by a probation officer 
and other people being paid by tax dollars, (the defendants) are not 
in jail, which is a significant savings in terms of jail time," Martin said.

"When they complete the program, they're employable, they pay their 
taxes and they're no longer addicted to drugs or alcohol.

You don't get the derivative crimes that come from that, the retail 
theft, access device fraud (and the like)," he added.

"It's a significant savings to everybody," Martin said. "Some of 
these people wouldn't only just be in county jail, they'd be looking 
at state sentences, so it would be an extended period of 
incarceration at the state level. So there are substantial savings. 
Our graduates are taxpaying citizens back on the tax rolls."Between 
the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, 2013, and March 31, 
treatment court spared defendants from a cumulative 1,703 days of 
incarceration, according to Yurky, saving taxpayers tens of thousands 
of dollars. Dougherty said it costs the county $55 a day to 
incarcerate someone in the county jail.

But really though, the point of the program is to do what's best for 
people suffering from a disease, officials say.

"Ultimately, the goal of the program is for defendants to regain 
control of their lives" and not letting the addiction control their 
lives, Dougherty said.

"We're giving them coping skills so they don't relapse - finding 
friends, social networks either through the Alcoholics Anonymous or 
Narcotics Anonymous community, finding sober supports for these 
people," he said.

And Martin said that not only does the program help addicts, but the 
people who are close to them as well.

"The person we start with is not the person we finish with," he said. 
"The common comment that you hear all the time from ... family, 
friends is, 'I've got my son back.' 'I've got my daughter back.' 
'I've got my brother back.'"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom