DRUG COURT TO TREAT, NOT PUNISH

Oakland Plan Avoids Prison Sentences For Drug-Abuse Offenders

PONTIAC -- Law enforcement officials and judges are teaming up in Oakland
County in a bipartisan effort to establish a treatment-based drug court to
replace hard prison time for drug offenders.

Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca, a Republican, and Oakland Circuit
Court Judge David Breck, a Democrat, are just two of the justice officials
who have joined forces in an effort to get grant money for Metro Detroit's
second therapeutic drug court for adults who have committed felonies.

Supporters say the treatment-based courts are twice as effective at keeping
substance abusers from repeating their crimes and far cheaper than locking
them up. Detractors say the program coddles drug offenders who should be
behind bars.

There are three such adult courts in Michigan -- including one established
two years ago in the Wayne County Circuit Court and the state's first,
which started eight years ago in Kalamazoo. And while the 400 or so drug
courts nationwide only hear about 1 percent of the country's drug cases,
some policy experts predict the treatment-based courts will grow to handle
most of the nation's nonviolent drug users.

"It's a new concept that's sweeping the nation," said Breck, the judge who
would run Oakland County's drug court under the proposed system. "It's
called therapeutic jurisprudence. It's so refreshing because the emphasis
is on rehabilitation. The recidivism (repeat offender) rate in a normal
court is usually about 70 percent. In some of the true drug courts, it can
be as low as five percent."

COURT

Breck, who once defied state law by refusing to sentence a cocaine addict
to life in prison because he said it would be cruel and unusual punishment,
would pose a dramatic contrast to the county's visiting drug judge, Meyer
Warshawsky.

Warshawsky stepped down from office last month amid allegations he
conspired with prosecutors to win convictions against drug case defendants
- -- a charge the judge denies.

A Michigan Attorney General's investigation is expected to be completed by
the end of the month. Warshawsky could face criminal charges and disbarment.

Warshawsky's court is a fast-track trial court, not a therapeutic drug court.

During a recent interview with The Detroit News, Warshawsky said he felt as
though drug dealers had "taken over the streets in Oakland County," but
that "they shouldn't be able to take over the drug courts, too."

Breck said the conventional war on drugs was lost years ago.

And while Breck's court would focus on users -- not high-level dealers --
the 69-year-old judge would replace Warshawsky as Oakland County's most
recognizable drug judge.

Under the program proposed to the state by Oakland County Chief Circuit
Court Judge Barry Howard, offenders who can stay clean and do 10 months of
intense probation will be spared prison. Circuit Court Judge Edward Sosnick
would run a similar drug court for Oakland County juveniles.

Howard said he hopes to have the courts operating in the next six months.
Word from the State Court administrator's office on whether Oakland County
will get its funding is expected by the end of the year, he said.

Oakland County is one of nine applicants vying for a piece of the $1.2
million the state has set aside for drug courts. Howard estimates it costs
about $150,000 to start an adult program and about $300,000 for a juvenile
program. Most of the money is spent on treatment programs.

In the proposed Oakland County drug courts, candidates must be nonviolent
felony offenders who admit to having a substance abuse problem. The program
requires intense counseling, including the attendence of 12-step programs
and urine tests three times a week. Offenders also have to get an
Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous sponsor and meet with a case
worker once a week.

If offenders fail the program, they will be sentenced to a normal prison
term for the crime that initially brought them to court. Offenders must
plead guilty to the charges against them to begin the program. The sentence
is suspended during their participation, and the charges are dropped if the
offender graduates.

"There is a certain segment of the population that is prone to criminal
behavior," Gorcyca said, "and then there are those who commit crimes
largely -- if not solely -- to feed their addictions. A lot of those people
want to change."

Gorcyca's office handled more than 3,330 drug cases in 1998, but not all
the suspects would have qualified for the drug court. In its beginning, the
court will only be able to handle 40 offenders at a time. The juvenile drug
court will handle up to 80 offenders.

Gorcyca said even police chiefs seem to agree with the drug court concept
that 10 years ago drew criticism as a coddling approach to drug offenders.

"They are generally supportive of it," Gorcyca said. "Some are reserving
judgment until they see the final plan, but I haven't heard anyone raising
any objections."

That's because even staunch conservatives are starting to concede that
punishment without treatment doesn't keep users off drugs and out of the
prostitution, theft, and low-level dealing they so often practice to
support their habits, said Mathea Falco, president of a Washington-based
research institute called Drug Strategies.

"This movement is widely accepted now," she said. "More and more people
from both sides of the political spectrum have come to understand that many
criminal offenders need treatment if they're going to break the cycle of
addiction and crime."

(SIDEBAR)

DRUG COURTS

The first therapeutic drug court was established in Miami in 1989. From
1989 to 1993, the court placed more than 4,500 offenders into
court-supervised treatment. By 1993, 1,270 had graduated and 1,700 remained
in treatment.

According to a report by Drug Strategies, there were 300 drug courts by
1995. Today more than 400 are operating, and about 100 more are in the
works. Michigan's first drug court -- designed for women -- opened in
Kalamazoo in 1992. Today, there are 10 in operation. They include:

* An adult drug court in Detroit. Eight Wayne County Circuit Court judges
pitch in to hear cases. The program handles about 550 offenders at a time.
As of Jan. 1, 128 participants had graduated, according to court records.

* A juvenile court run by Macomb County Chief Probate Judge Gilbert
O'Sullivan. The court opened in early 1999 and handles 35 cases at a time.
The first five participants graduated earlier this month. Five failed out.
Most of the original offenders are still working toward graduation.

* Both juvenile and adult drug courts in Kalamazoo, which opened about
three years after the women's program began.

* A Berrien County Circuit Court in St. Joseph, which started in 1992.

* The Sault Ste. Marie tribal court in Sault Ste. Marie.

* District drug courts in Detroit, Warren, Grand Rapids and Charlotte.

Sources: Drug Strategies, the Wayne County Circuit Drug Court, the Macomb
County Juvenile Drug Court and the Michigan State Court Administrative Office.