Thanks to all who support drug court program

On March 31, the Legislature enacted, and the governor signed, the state’s supplemental budget through June 30, 2009. It includes $150,000 in the Office of Substance Abuse budget to fund the Hancock County Adult Drug Treatment Court beginning July 1. Thanks to the efforts of Sen. Richard Rosen and the entire Hancock County delegation, the Legislature had previously approved this funding last June, but it was deleted subsequently in the governor’s supplemental budget. Additional thanks are due, therefore, to Sen. Kevin Raye, Reps. Hannah Pingree and Anne Perry for leading the effort to restore these funds to the budget.

This achievement is particularly noteworthy because it is the first time Maine has added a new adult drug court jurisdiction since implementing its statewide system of drug courts in April 2001. Currently, Maine has adult drug courts in only five of its 16 counties, including Penobscot and Washington. In addition, the state operates six juvenile drug courts, three family drug courts and one co-occurring mental health disorder court.

On July 1, a little more than five years after a Southwest Harbor fisherman stood up at a selectman’s meeting insisting that something be done about the rampant problem of drug abuse in his community, the Hancock County Deferred Sentencing Project will become Maine’s sixth drug court. By providing long-term funding and stability for this program, the Legislature has created a framework that should stimulate Penobscot, Washington and Hancock counties to work together to develop an effective, regionalized approach to curtailing the epidemic of alcohol and prescription drug abuse, illicit drug abuse and drug trafficking in this part of the state.

An adult drug treatment court is a special docket or court-supervised program designed to reduce recidivism and substance abuse and to increase the likelihood of rehabilitation among selected nonviolent, alcoholic and-or other drug-addicted adult defendants in lieu of incarceration. After a plea agreement, sentencing is deferred and defendants are diverted from jail while a multidisciplinary team provides strict, continual supervision and oversees a demanding outpatient treatment program in the community for at least one year. There are more than 1,700 drug courts nationwide, and study after study has documented that adult drug courts decrease crime and recidivism, increase public safety, increase sobriety and recovery among former defendants, and save money.

Drug court teams include a judge, a case manager, a substance abuse treatment specialist, probation and other local law enforcement officers, and defense and prosecuting attorneys. Requirements of the court include: weekly or biweekly meetings of all clients with the drug court judge and team; being employed, enrolled in an approved educational program, or performing community service at least 20 hours per week; attending specialized treatment sessions several hours per week plus attending five to seven self-help meetings a week (e.g., Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous); daily phone contact and weekly meetings with the case manager; random drug testing at least twice a week; regular meetings with probation and-or other law enforcement officers; specific curfew and travel restrictions; and searches of clients, their personal property, and-or their homes as appropriate. Throughout the program, clients receive graduated rewards or sanctions based upon their compliance or noncompliance with defined program rules and expectations.

Potential clients may be referred for evaluation from various sources including: judges; defense and-or prosecuting attorneys; probation and-or other law enforcement personnel including jail staff; friends, family, and-or other defendants. Successful clients participate for at least one year. Following graduation, clients complete the sentence agreed upon at admission. This almost always entails remaining on probation for at least 18 to 24 months without having to serve any additional jail time. Jail time that is specified as a condition of admission in the plea agreement is served at the beginning the program.

The Hancock County court was initiated in 2004 as a grass-roots effort to implement a local jail diversion program modeled closely after Maine’s other drug courts because neither state funding nor judicial resources were available. Funded entirely through grants and local contributions from private citizens, businesses and organizations, and led by retired Superior Court Justice Paul T. Pierson, the project’s first client was admitted in April 2005.

The program’s results to date clearly exceed those of adult drug courts nationally and compare most favorably with those of Maine’s other adult drug courts. More than 140 referrals have been evaluated, and 32 clients have been admitted. Eighty-seven percent of clients have either completed the program successfully (12), or are part of the active census (16). Only four individuals, or 12.5 percent of clients, have withdrawn or been expelled from the program, and the “in-program” recidivism rate is 9.7 percent. In addition, all 12 graduates are employed or enrolled in school full time, and only one of them has been arrested for a new crime since graduating.

Based on very conservative estimates, the Hancock County court saved the state about $269,000 in net incarceration costs as of last May. Furthermore, it is estimated that it will save the state more than $300,000 in similar costs during its first 12 months.

During the past five years, many individuals, businesses and organizations have supported this effort with their generous financial contributions. On behalf of each client and his or her family, as well as the future clients and families of the court, thank you all very much for your commitment to this project and for daring to believe in possibility, reminding us that “some see things as they are and ask why, while others dream of things that never were and ask why not.”

Richard C. Dimond of Southwest Harbor is a retired physician and the steering committee chairman of the Hancock County Deferred Sentencing Project.