Pubdate: Sat, 19 Dec 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52

TREATMENT INSTEAD OF JAIL FOR ADDICTS

This fall,a new kind of court session came to order in Massachusetts, 
one that holds enormous promise for a region coping with an exploding 
opioid epidemic by offering integrated treatment for low-level drug 
defendants rather than costly long-term incarceration.

The program, called RISE - for Repair, Invest, Succeed, Emerge - is 
part of a broader shift nationally away from rigid sentencing 
guidelines to a more humane view: dealing with the complex social 
causes that can lead to drug abuse and drug-related crime in an 
effort to break the addiction cycle and keep people from re-offending.

"This offers an opportunity . . . to help defendants turn their lives 
around," US District Judge Leo T. Sorokin told the Globe's Milton 
Valencia. "We are trying to make sure defendants never come back to 
the criminal justice system, and that when they return to their 
neighborhoods they return as sober, employed, and law-abiding citizens."

Defendants are offered a chance to avoid or reduce their time behind 
bars by pleading guilty - and working with a network of agencies to 
get their lives back on track. In a recent case, a mother of five, 
who was hauled into court for helping a drug dealer launder money, 
agreed to find better child care and stable housing, to work toward 
obtaining a GED, and to maintain a job. Her progress will be 
monitored by court officials for a year. If successful, RISE 
participants might be offered alternatives to prison, such as 
probation or home confinement - or a sentence might be dismissed entirely.

Certainly, there are some important caveats - and close partnership 
between the prosecution, defense attorneys, probation officers, and 
judges is crucial to the program's success. So is the kind of 
up-close-and-personal attention that will make sure defendants work 
toward their ultimate goals for setting their lives on a better path. 
As the Globe reported, victims of crime are allowed to participate at 
their own discretion - and asking defendants to take responsibility 
for the impact of their misdeeds certainly seems like a logical first 
step in the rehabilitation process. The program also should exclude 
anyone accused of serious violent crime or crimes involving 
exploitation of a child - or high-level white collar crimes that 
can't be tied to a history of drug abuse or a disadvantaged 
background. Court officials hope to serve 20 defendants in the first 
year and then will reassess.

Although states have had marked success with drug courts since 
then-prosecutor Janet Reno launched the first one in Miami in 1990, a 
Huffington Post investigation earlier this year found that some 
states were wavering in their commitment. Kentucky courts forced 
addicts into abstinence-only programs, the investigation found, 
depriving them of medications like Suboxone, a semi-synthetic opioid 
drug that stops cravings. The Obama administration rightly cracked 
down, announcing that state drug courts that receive federal funding 
will not be allowed to ban medications. The federal government should 
not back down.

If anything, the RISE program in US District Court in Massachusetts 
should serve as a national example and shows that partnerships 
between the criminal justice system and social service agencies can 
be a potent weapon in combatting the opioid epidemic.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom