Changing approach to drug crimes delivers justice

An active, forward-thinking district attorney is taking over in the First Judicial District. And the approach from Mary CarmackAltwies shows promise to improving how our society deals with crime.

She says she wants to go after bad guys — big drug dealers, for example — while offering individual drug addicts the opportunity to break bad habits after being arrested. She is meeting with District Court judges to discuss how her office plans to handle cases, signaling a willingness to communicate and cooperate with other links in the justice chain. She also is putting in place procedures to ensure cases don’t fall through the cracks, which can allow those accused of crimes to avoid justice because their trials did not start soon enough.

Carmack-Altwies says those guidelines will be written down, offering clear direction for lawyers in the office so defendants are treated equally. Public defenders, too, can better serve their clients because they will know how the District Attorney’s Office operates.

So far, so good.

Most striking about the changes Carmack-Altwies wants to employ is her determination to deal with drug crime in a different way.

Carmack-Altwies discovered about 33 percent of all cases in the office dealt with possession of a controlled substance. Prosecuting such cases as felonies takes time, often diverting attention from more serious offenses. She believes most users need treatment rather than punishment. She’s correct.

The new policy would allow first-time felony drug possessions to be pleaded down to misdemeanors. Those would be handled in Magistrate Court before going to District Court, with defendants offered treatment or probation.

This policy, if executed properly, will have a ripple effect, and not just on lawyers at the District Attorney’s Office who handle drug cases. District Court dockets should be lighter. The state crime lab will have fewer drug cases to process, reducing what the DA says is a 13-month backlog. Jails and prisons should have fewer occupants if addicts aren’t in the cells. Public defenders should feel relief from crippling case loads.

Perhaps most important, treatment can lessen recidivism, which is one of the big reasons dockets and jail cells are packed in the first place.

But the diversion won’t pay dividends if treatment is not available — which means more money needs to flow from state and federal sources to fund programs to help people shake drug habits.

There’s a broader question, too, of how to handle those serving sentences on felony drug possession crimes. It’s time to plot a path to reducing their sentences while offering treatment. Criminal justice reform is an ongoing effort, after all, and state lawmakers, district attorneys, police forces and public defenders are continuing to work on how to improve the system. Those efforts must be speeded up, both at the state and federal level.

If Carmack-Altwies is successful, the First Judicial District could be a leader in a state where most jurisdictions have the same problem: Too many cases, not enough resources.

Done right, these reforms can provide swift, appropriate punishment while still helping individuals out of addiction. That’s justice in action.