Pubdate: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 Source: Daily Gazette (NY) Copyright: 2002 The Gazette Newspapers Contact: http://www.dailygazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/105 Author: Laura Suchowolec Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts) DRUG COURTS GIVE ADDICTS GOOD REASON TO STAY CLEAN ALBANY - The threat of doing time in state prison keeps Mike Kelsey going to Drug Court in Albany County. "I'm looking at 2 to 6 years so there's a motivation for me to stay in Drug Court and the [substance abuse] treatment," said Kelsey, who broke into a house and stole $300 so he could feed his heroin addiction. Kelsey, a 35-year-old Albany man, is in his third month of the Albany County Drug-Court program. He's one of a growing number of people convicted of non-violent, drug-related crimes who are entering and sticking with drug-court programs. Retention rates are a key sta-tistic in measuring the success of drug-court programs. Statewide, 72 percent of the people who enter drug-court programs stick with them for a year, according to the state Office of Court Administration. Nationally, the one-year retention rates for people in drug courts is 60 percent. Because they seem to work, drug courts are gaining in popularity here in New York state and nationally. In the Capital Region, Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Fulton counties have drug-court programs. In Saratoga County, District Attorney James A. Murphy III said last week that the county will have a drug court up and running by next January. And last week, Schenectady County officials announced they had won a $436,696 grant for their 1-year-old drug-court program. The money will allow them to double the number of people who enroll in Drug Court in Schenectady County. Because Schenectady's Drug Court is new, there are no statistics to show whether the program is keeping people off drugs and out of trouble with the law - the two main goals of the program. Last-Ditch Alternative Rather than sending drug and alcohol abusers to prison for committing crimes related to their addiction, drug courts offer alternative sentences. The programs cost less than prison or jails where the defendants would be warehoused, supporters say. The defendants plead guilty to a crime and are sentenced. In Kelsey's case, it was a felony burglary charge and Albany County Court Judge Stephen Herrick sentenced him to 2 to 6 years in state prison earlier this year. But Kelsey - and other drug court participants - remain free as long as they stay drug free, out of trouble and participate in court ordered programs. The average drug-court defendant facing felony charges spends a minimum of 12 to 18 months in the program. At the end of that time, their conviction stands but they will not have spent time behind bars. Since New York's first drug court opened in 1995, the program has continued to grow. There are now more than 40 drug courts in 27 counties. New York state's top judge, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, said that there will at least one drug court in each of the state's 62 counties. Nationwide statistics have shown that drug-court participants are far less likely to commit new crimes than defendants placed on probation or released from prison. Herrick, the judge in charge of felony drug-court cases in Albany County, said he wasn't thrilled about the idea of special-treatment courts for people who commit drug-related crimes. "Originally when I found out about these in 1998, I wasn't a supporter but I owed Dennis Foley, the county's Stop-DWI coordinator, a favor and he asked me to take a look at them," Herrick said. "When I started reading about them [drug courts] and the disease of addiction, I started to lean in the other direction." On Friday afternoon, Herrick ran his weekly drug-court session for 13 felons, including Kathleen Conway, the first to enter Albany County's felony Drug Court in February. She and the others must report to court every Friday afternoon, when Herrick reads their weekly progress reports and questions them. "Coming to court every week helps remind me that I am facing 2 to 7 years if I don't make it," said Conway, a 22-year-old Albany woman who pleaded guilty to violating probation twice. She got in trouble two years ago when she stole someone's checks and identification and cashed them. Conway, like Kelsey, was a heroin addict and committed her crime to get money to buy drugs. She pleaded guilty to attempted forgery and was sentenced to probation and ordered to get drug treatment. Conway dropped out of two programs, which violated the terms of her probation, and she was facing felony charges and state prison time. Now she is living in the Bridge Center, a drug-rehabilitation center in Schenectady. "This is the most trouble I've ever been in. This is my bottom but the drug court is working for me," said Conway, who says she hopes to go to fashion school and own a clothing store someday. "I am almost five months clean and proud of it." Proof Lacking Despite the almost universal praise for drug court, there are few numbers to show whether the programs work. New York has yet to conduct a statewide study of retention and recidivism rates among the participants. The reason: Many, like Schenectady's Drug-Court program, are too young or too small to have meaningful statistics. But the federal and state governments are paying for a $375,000 study of four upstate and four New York City drug courts. "A lot of people are interested in the bottom line and that's what we hope our study will show," said Michael Rempel, research director for the Center for Court Innovation, which is conducting the two-year study with the state Office of Court Administration. None of the Capital Region counties with drug courts will be a part of the study. Rempel, who is 14 months into his research, says the counties selected are representative of many counties and should show basic drug-court successes or failures. "By looking at those numbers, it gives you a good indication of how long-term outcomes are likely to look." Rempel said. "These have emerged as benchmarks in looking at the success of drug courts." The statistics will be updated as the study continues and won't be finalized until next year. The preliminary numbers show that drug courts in New York have lower dropout rates than similar courts across the country. As of April, none of the eight courts being analyzed showed one-year retention rates of less that 60 percent - which is the national average. The eight upstate courts are in Suffolk County, Syracuse, Lackawana and Ithaca, and downstate in Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan and Queens. No recidivism rates have been calculated yet, Rempel said. Highest Rate Rensselaer County Drug Court - one of the first in the state - began in 1997 and has a higher one-year retention rate than any of the courts in the study. Mickey Cleary, the drug-court coordinator for the Third Judicial District, which includes Rensselaer and Albany counties, said that 86 percent of the 52 felons who entered drug court stuck with it for at least a year. Only six failed. Troy City Court, where there is a Drug Court for misdemeanor defendants, has a lower success rate. Of the 75 participants, 24 failed which meant a 68-percent retention rate. That trend mirrors state and national drug courts where the people charged with misdemeanor crimes punishable by a year or less in jail were more likely to drop out. "You can go to drug court on a felony and you may go away for 2 to 7 years if you drop out," Cleary said. "If they fail, the hammer - jail time - is much greater than in local courts where someone may face 4 months. A lot of times, they will put up their hands and quit." "I don't know about the drug-court program in general but I know it's going to work for me," said Kelsey, who has been drug-free for three months. "I've got four kids and [me] being in prison is not going to do them any good." Kelsey said the possible prison term if he fails drug court is motivating him to stick with the program. In Albany County, the misdemeanor and felony drug-court statistics have not been kept separately. Since misdemeanor drug courts opened there in January 2000, and felony drug courts earlier this year, 99 people have participated and 26 of those failed, giving the county a 73-percent retention rate. "All of these courts are very active and all of them are doing well," said State Supreme Court Judge Thomas W. Keegan, who is seated in Albany and also administrative judge of the Third Judicial District. There are more than 750 drug courts running and 500 in the planning stages in the nation, according to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, based in Alexandria, Va. Nationwide, more than 300,000 people have entered drug courts. In New York, 12,666 people have participated in them since drug courts began, according to the Office of Court Administration. The number of new participants in drug court in New York jumped by 23 percent between October 2000 and Sept 2001, from 2,653 to 3,262. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth