New drug court signals fresh approach

Boulder Co. officials see system as way to shut revolving door

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 17, 2006 at midnight

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BOULDER - Boulder County justice officials are taking a radical new approach to drug addiction, starting this fall.

Addicts who violate probation by continuing to use drugs will be sent to drug court, rather than back to jail. They'll make some 40 appearances before a judge in a year, each time with a reward or a sanction on the line.

A longtime addict making his first appearance might be rewarded with movie tickets just for showing up on time for the court date and bringing a urine sample, even if that sample shows he's still using.

The aim is to close the revolving door that scoots drug addicts into jail, back into society and back again to jail.

Drugs can be so addictive that it's unreasonable to expect an addict to quit them cold turkey, even if jail is the alternative, backers of the new approach say.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers will team with the judge, planning the best reward-punishment combination for each case and deciding when a minor slip-up doesn't warrant a return to jail.

Each addict will appear in court once a week for the first 90 days.

Currently, weeks may go by between trial and follow-up - weeks for the addict to return to the old neighborhood, old friends and old bad behaviors.

"We expect that our outcomes are going to improve dramatically," Boulder District Judge Roxanne Bailin said. "Our success rates in obtaining long-term sobriety aren't great. We want to improve the lives of families and the community at large, and to increase public safety."

Bailin attended a national conference on drug courts in Seattle this month, along with Assistant District Attorney Pete Maguire and Deputy District Attorney Tim Talkington.

Nationwide, about 1,800 locales have drug courts. Denver has had one for years and Larimer County started one several years ago. But Boulder County would be the first metro-area county to make the full-fledged leap.

According to drugfree.org, more than 10 percent of American adults - some 19.4 million people - are dependent on or addicted to drugs or alcohol. Bailin estimates that 70 percent of the 2,200 felony cases Boulder sees each year have some connection to drugs and alcohol.

It's not always what you think.

Someone arrested for speeding might have had cocaine in the car, but doesn't necessarily have an addiction problem. Conversely, someone arrested for forgery might be in chaos because of a drug addiction.

It's those chronic users, whose lives and whose families' lives are out of control because of addiction, that the new court will try to help. Bailin and the public defender estimate that a quarter of the people seen in the county's courts would be good candidates for drug court.

After an arrest, the person will go through regular court - to plea bargain or to stand trial. The drug court could get involved if there's a violation of probation that proves to be related to addiction.

On the one hand, sheriffs and police don't want to be soft on drugs.

On the other hand, city and county jails are growing overcrowded due in large part to people whose main crimes are using illegal drugs.

For prosecutors and law enforcement officers, the new approach takes a leap of faith that locking up probation violators isn't always the best way to turn around lives.

"It's complex," Talkington said. "No law enforcement official is going to be happy if someone continues to commit crimes by using illegal drugs."

Still, he said, "the arguments are persuasive" that a more flexible model works better.

The road back to sobriety requires short steps, which change the adversarial relationship between criminal and prosecutor.

"We'll be happy initially that they're just able to keep their appointments," Talkington said.

But not for long. Addicts will have to show progress or they'll get sanctions that could include more days tacked on before graduation, or more weeks before a visit with a child is allowed.

A reward might be a movie ticket or a gift certificate, or a chance to see a child who's been taken from the home because of the addiction.

Talkington is convinced that Boulder County's drug court model "is going to cost less than imprisoning people and seeing them through the revolving door."

Addicts will get constant scrutiny from prosecutors, the judge and social workers, with a lot of random and scheduled urine tests.

If someone says he's been clean, but adds, "I've been getting these cravings," the team might find him a slot in rehab, change his therapist or get him a place to live away from the temptations, said Seth Temin, head of the Boulder office of the Colorado Public Defender.

Larry Abrahamson is district attorney in Larimer County, which has drug courts for both adults and juveniles and started the nation's first drug court for a college campus at Colorado State University.

He counts the system a success. Roughly 30 percent of those put into drug court in Larimer County graduate 12 or 18 months later. That compares with a relapse rate of about 85 percent for addicts in the regular court system, Abrahamson said.

The upfront costs are more because of all the court appearances, he said. "But there's going to be savings to the community - in what the person is able to produce, in saving the family, in getting a job and staying out of trouble."

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