Pubdate: Tue, 03 Apr 2007
Source: Tuscaloosa News, The (AL)
Copyright: 2007 The Tuscaloosa News
Contact:  http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1665
Author: Stephanie Taylor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

JUDGE URGES EXPANSION OF DRUG COURT

TUSCALOOSA - Of all the criminal cases in Tuscaloosa  County Circuit
Court last year, 1,135 were assigned to  a jury trial.

But with jury trials scheduled for only 15 weeks out of  the year,
there's only time and money to hold about two  trials each of those
weeks, said Tuscaloosa County  presiding Circuit Judge Scott Donaldson.

"That would take 56 years to try them all," he said.

About half of the cases involve drug offenses, he said,  and more than
that have some relation to drugs.

"We have got to move these cases through the system in  another way,"
Donaldson said at a meeting Monday to  discuss expanding the county
drug court program.

Ideal -- but far from realistic -- solutions to the  high case volume
would require the county to have more  circuit judges or hold more
frequent jury trials, he  said.

But a more immediate solution would be to expand the  drug court
program.

Judges sentence some first-time offenders to drug  court, as well as
others whom they feel could benefit  from treatment and monitoring
program.

There are 164 people assigned to the program. Dan  Boisot, director of
Tuscaloosa Community Corrections,  said that his agency has the
resources to handle about  500 people.

Those assigned to drug court, which provides an  alternative to
incarceration in most cases, spend an  average of 14 to 16 months in
the program at an average  of about four to five hours a week.

They participate in an outpatient treatment program,  which varies in
intensity according to what they were  charged with and how far they
have gotten into  treatment, Boisot said.

"We need a drug court program with several hundred  people in it in
order to get to the cases that involve  violent offenders -- rapes,
murders, serious habitual  offenders," Donaldson said.

He said the program needs to be expanded because  Alabama Supreme
Court Justice Sue Bell Cobb has made it  a priority to increase and
improve the programs in all  Alabama counties.

Donaldson said that an Administrative Office of Courts  study
indicated that Tuscaloosa is first in the state  in the number of drug
cases, but also said that those  numbers fluctuate. Another study
indicated that the  Tuscaloosa circuit, the state's 6th Judicial
Circuit,  is most in need of an additional judge.

The meeting held Monday included law enforcement  members, attorneys
and community leaders. Donaldson  said he will form a task force to
come up with ideas  about how to expand the program.
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