C. West Huddleston III, an expert on the subject, helps celebrate Drug Court Month and the approach used by those institutions.

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 31, 2005

BY EDWARD FITZPATRICK
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The number of drug courts in the country increased by 37 percent last year, and has nearly doubled since 2001, according to a report that the National Drug Court Institute released here last week.

C. West Huddleston III, director of the National Drug Court Institute, was in Rhode Island on Thursday and Friday to do a Family Court training session, meet with state officials and speak at a banquet marking national Drug Court Month.

During the visit, he also released a report titled "Painting the Current Picture: A National Report Card on Drug Courts and Other Problem-Solving Court Programs in the United States."

The report shows that, at the end of last year, the country had 1,621 drug courts -- up from 1,183 in 2003 and 847 in 2001.

"Drug courts are literally becoming a way of doing business in the courts," Huddleston said. "Solving problems is becoming a more accepted idea, as opposed to just disposing of cases and either putting people in prison or putting them on probation with few treatment alternatives."

Drug courts are special court calendars or dockets designed to cut recidivism by nonviolent offenders.

People charged with drug crimes undergo "an intensive regimen of substance-abuse and mental-health treatment, case management, drug testing and probation supervision while reporting to regularly scheduled status hearings before a judge with specialized expertise in the drug-court model," the report states.

Rhode Island has seven drug courts, including separate courts for juveniles, adults and family treatment. Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. said the new report shows that there is a need for drug courts, and that the courts work.

"We know it's working here," Jeremiah said.

"Before, we'd tell them to come back in three to six months, and we didn't know what they did in that time. Now we say, come back in one to two weeks, and we do drug screenings and they're getting drug treatment."

Rhode Island spent $1.77 million on drug courts last year, according to the report.

"That is money incredibly well spent," Huddleston said. He cited a study in Washington state that estimated the average drug-court participant produces $6,779 in benefits, because of a 13-percent reduction in recidivism. That sum includes $3,759 in "avoided criminal-justice system costs," and $3,020 in "avoided costs to victims."

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional office, reviewed drug-court research this year and found that the courts resulted in lower re-arrest and conviction rates and positive cost-benefit ratios. But "exactly what about drug courts work is still open to question," the GAO review concluded.

Huddleston said the answer lies in the combination of drug treatment and "the hammer" of a judge. "Collaboration without the power of a judge is not as effective," he said.

Normally, judges are trained as lawyers and are not taught to be "clinicians who get into the guts of someone's life," Huddleston said. But drug-court judges are trained to take on a more "therapeutic" role, he said.

The growth in the number of drug courts is expected to continue. According to the report, 215 jurisdictions are formally planning drug courts, and an additional 263 have submitted grant applications to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Huddleston said there are drug courts in every state and every major city. Much of the growth is in more rural areas, he said.

The National Drug Court Institute, based in Alexandria, Va., is a nonprofit affiliate of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.