For the week of January 2 - 8, 2002

Blaine County may send defendants to new drug court

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By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas said the county may begin sending first-time drug-possession defendants through a recently created drug court in Twin Falls that provides treatment rather than prison sentences.

The drug courts for felony offenders became operative in all of Idaho’s seven judicial districts in July, following a $1.5 million allocation by the 2001 session of the Legislature. Blaine County defendants admitted to the program would appear before 5^th District Judge Monte Carlson in Twin Falls.

Thomas said he hopes to discuss the program with local judge James May later this month after May attends a judges’ conference in Boise, at which the program’s track record will probably be discussed.

"I believe he’s going to have to buy into it before we can get involved with it," Thomas said.

Thomas also said he would like to attend a drug court training session in Twin Falls to see how the court has worked there.

According to a 5^th Judicial District press release, drug courts in other states have reduced repeated offenses, lowered prison costs and helped restore people to productive lives.

"Drug courts give us another effective and proven tool to help break the cycle of substance abuse, followed by crime, followed by incarceration, and too often followed by the cycle repeating itself," said Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice Linda Copple Trout in a press release.

Fifth District Trial Court Administrator Linda Wright said the district’s drug court has processed 17 defendants since it went into operation in March. She said grant money enabled the local court to begin before it received the state funding.

Wright said the drug court route is open to people accused of felony drug possession who have no history of convictions for violent crimes.

"They would be people who could be turned around because they don’t have other major problems in their lives," she said.

If the defendant is accepted by the local prosecutor and by the drug court judge, he or she must be willing to plead guilty and agree to return to the judge for sentencing if he or she fails the program.

The drug court alternative requires the defendant to enter a substance-abuse treatment program and appear before the judge once a week so progress can be monitored. He or she must also accept employment found by court job-placement personnel. According to the district’s press release, 97 percent of drug court graduates in Ada County are holding jobs, though only 42 percent did so when they entered the program.

Wright said the drug court offers felony drug-possession defendants an opportunity similar to that already offered some misdemeanor defendants, who are given suspended sentences on the condition that they attend treatment programs and meet regularly with parole officers.

Wright said an additional benefit of the drug courts is that they reduce welfare costs by allowing defendants with families to continue supporting them.

 

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