Drug court shows some success
Judge: Grant has helped people get treatment
TROY, N.Y. » A court program aimed at getting more addicts to complete treatment seems to be working, according to a county judge.
Rensselaer County Court Judge Debra Young oversees the county drug court. Many people coming before her who were getting referred to treatment programs weren’t making it through, or even into treatment to begin with, she said.
“The issue we were seeing is we’d have people at the jail we knew were addicted, they’d get out to get into treatment and they would never make it, we would lose them,” she said. “They would run, fall down that rabbit hole, and by the time we’d get them back they’d be much worse off than they were before.”
For those heavily addicted to opioids, whose lives revolve around using, once they’re released to enter a treatment program it’s important they enter as
soon as possible.
“( When) they’re released to the street, they would never quite make it to that treatment provider.” said Young. That, or they would need more than what their outpatient care was giving them.
In October 2016, the drug court was awarded a $ 300,000 grant, to be spread over three years, that would fund the screening and monitoring of certain people going through drug court, those who were at a high risk of reoffending.
While the program isn’t only for those addicted to opioids, it is geared towards that population.
Young said that in the first year, 49 people were evaluated. Of that, 30 were accepted. So far, 18 people are still in the program with two having graduated.
It takes between 18 and 24 months to complete a program. Young said that nationally, the average completion rate for a drug rehabilitation is between 50 and 60 percent.
So far this year, 19 people have been screened for the program with 14 being accepted.
The money from the grant goes to a group called Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communities, which provides case management, evaluations, and transportation, things the court itself isn’t well- equipped to provide, said Young.
Not just anyone facing drug charges is eligible, she said. The program only accepts non-violent offenders, and can not take sex offenders. Each case is looked at individually. Young said people selling drugs to support their own addictions are eligible, but someone selling only for profit wouldn’t be referred.
“I think we’re capturing a lot more of them now than we were before, of the highrisk, high-need individuals,” Young said.
Once the funding runs out, the court can reapply. Young said it should be easier to get the grant renewed than it was to be awarded originally, but documenting the program’s effectiveness is time consuming. She plans to create a work group to put together a package for when the court applies for a renewal.
Young said there’s money available to court for this sort of thing nationwide, at least according to what she and other court staff learned at the National Association of Drug Treatment Court Professionals annual conference in Houston, Texas, last week.
She said the local Office of Court Administration was extremely helpful to her in applying for this grant.