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Drug Court option will be available to county defendants in 2008 The creation of a new Drug Court in Clarke County was announced at Monday's work session of the Clarke County Commission. The year-long program will begin Jan. 1, 2008. Officials are asking the county to provide building space, maintenance and possible funding for the program, which is expected to treat 60 peopleat a time. "…The goal is to get people a job and (in some cases) their high school diploma, let them become taxpayers in this county," said Michael Goldman, Clarke County coordinator for Southwest Alabama Mental Health of Monroeville. "…This will be the first state in the U.S. to have this program statewide." Goldman was joined by Bob Will, clinical director, for Southwest Alabama Mental Health, as well as District Attorney Spence Walker. Goldman told the commission that the Drug Court program had the support of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb. The chief justice's initiative is "to treat people who are addicted to substances instead of sending them to prison," he said. The state Department of Mental Health will fund one staff member for the court, Goldman said. "The drug testing is going to be a very large expense. That's the only way to keep them clean - to test them." "The program has been really good because of the sanctions," Will said, who has worked with the Escambia County Drug Court. "…The sanctions are fairly heavy depending on what the relapse is or what the people do. That's really up to the judge and the treatment staff." "We do have a need for this Drug Court program," DA Walker said. "…We are not taking about hardened criminals eligible for this….We are probably going to have to limit it to first time offenders. "We are talking about drug addicts, not drug dealers….They've got to have relatively clean records, and they have got to have a drug problem. Those are the people that I think this program can benefit. "We've used the Mobile County drug program in Washington County," Walker said. "I've even had one defendant tell me 'I don't want to go through Drug Court - just send me to jail. I know how tough that program is.' It's daily monitoring in some cases. It is certainly weekly drug testing." Without the Drug Court, the only options for sentencing are jail or probation, the district attorney said. "This gives us something in-between the two. It's more stringent than probation, but it's not as extreme as jail. "…To a prosecutor, we like it because they plead guilty immediately. They admit their guilt. They plead blind, essentially, that is no deal on the table. …In the event that somebody is unable to complete (the Drug Court program), then we send them down for sentencing, and the judge can send them to jail or do whatever he wants to them at that point," Walker said. "In the event that they do successfully complete it, they are given the opportunity to withdraw their guilty plea. It keeps their record clean, and they are able to get a job and keep a job." There is lower recidivism under the Drug Court program, the DA said. The Community Corrections Program will work in conjunction with the Drug Court. Funding will also be provided from the State Department of Corrections, Walker said, and the individuals in the program must also pay a fee. "The inmate population in the county jail has increased dramatically recently," he said. "A part of that is because we're doing a lot of bond revocations. Somebody is out on bond, and they get another offense." Persons with a drug problem can be placed in the Community Corrections Program and monitored closely, reducing the cost to the county of housing the inmates.
Funding for the Drug Court will be considered by the county commission during meetings on the 2008 fiscal budget, Commission Chairman Joe Hunt said Tuesday.
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