Pubdate: Sun, 08 Dec 2002
Source: Marietta Daily Journal (GA)
Copyright: 2002 The Marietta Daily Journal.
Contact:  http://www.mdjonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1904
Author: Michelle Graff

NEW PROGRAM PUTS FOCUS ON REHABILITATION PROCESS

MARIETTA - On Tuesday, Cobb County will start sending nonviolent drug
offenders into a different kind of court - Drug Treatment Court.

A concept six months in the making, the court replaces traditional
punishments - such as probation or jail time - with an 18-month program that
organizers say is in no way an easy way out.

The program requires participants to come to the courthouse on the Square as
many as five times a week for counseling and evaluation, attend outside
group meetings, submit to random drug tests, hold down steady employment and
earn their high school equivalency, if they don't already have it.

And, every Monday, participants must appear in front of Superior Court Judge
George Kreeger, who will act as both cheerleader and coach.

Kreeger said he got the idea for a Drug Treatment Court after seeing the
same people cycled through his courtroom for drug-related offenses again and
again.

"We felt like what we were doing wasn't working with everybody," he said.

Kreeger said he saw a lot of young people in his court one time for a minor
possession charge, and the next time, they'd be back to face burglary
charges, trying to steal to support their habit.

Through Drug Treatment Court, Kreeger said, he hopes to break that cycle.

"This sentence is going to be a lot tougher than probation," he said.

On Tuesday, Kreeger and treatment court team members Mitzi Walters, a
registered nurse, Kristie Gaskin, a psychologist, Deputy Sheriff Amy Heard
and probation officer Jack Ferguson will select the program's first
participants.

Participants in the program will not be prosecuted traditionally. Charges
will be dropped if the participant completes the drug program. If they don't
complete the treatment then prosecutors will bring the charges against them
in regular court.

Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head, who forwards potential participants
to the team from the DA's case file, said the program is limited to
first-time offenders with no previous felony arrests, those arrested for
simple possession - drug dealers are strictly forbidden - and those arrested
for forging prescriptions.

"It's primarily going to address those that have an addiction problem," he
said.

Head gave the example of person involved in a bad car accident who becomes
addicted to painkillers and is caught forging a prescription.

"Now I've got something to do with them, besides prosecute them," Head said.

Similar programs exist in Bibb, Glenn, Hall and Whitfield counties.

In the first year of the program, organizers plan to move about 100 people
through the court.

Kreeger said those who complete the program by attending the meetings,
holding down a job and having clean drug screens will come out with a clean
record.

"It they make it through, they won't have a record," he said. "If they flunk
out, they'll be on my regular criminal calendar."

In addition to giving former addicts a clean start, the program also gives
taxpayers a break, according to Superior Court Administrator Skip Chesshire,
who researched for the program for Cobb.

"It's much cheaper to do drug rehabilitation than to do incarceration," he
said.

The total cost of the program is $2,400 per person. Participants will pay
what they can for treatment, with a minimum cost of $10 a week. The rest of
the funding comes from a state grant and $150,000 allotted in the county
budget for the next two years.

The cost of keeping a prison in the detention center is about $12,045 per
year.

County commission chair Sam Olens said funding for the court was a unanimous
decision by the board.

"It's an excellent idea," he said. "From the taxpayers perspective this is a
more effective way to treat the problem and reduce costs.

"You can have a positive effect on the recidivism rate and treat the problem
at the same time you are reducing the total cost," Olens said. "It's a
win-win on both sides."

In addition to the support of the county commission, eight out of nine
Superior Court judges voted unanimously to adopt the program. The ninth
judge, Judge Dorothy Robinson did not attend the meeting where the vote was
taken. She was unavailable for comment Friday.

Cobb police chiefs and the DA's office have also expressed support for the
program.

Common Sense for Drug Policy, a Washington-based drug-law reform group which
has been a critic of drug court treatment programs all over the country,
said Cobb County seems to be off to a good start with its program.

Research director Doug McVay, who has examined a number of these programs,
said some of the concerns surrounding drug treatment courts are that the
judge and staff members involved are 100 percent in favor of the program and
that participants are not thrown in jail after one mistake.

"They are doing it right," he said. "They are approaching it the right way."
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