New plans for old problems

Posted on March 29, 2012 by comm5775

by: ZACHARY ARTHUR

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill recently voiced his policies on rehabilitating drug addicts while visiting a University of Utah class.

Gill, originally born in India, came to Utah in 1971 and is a graduate of the University of Utah and Lewis and Clark College of Law in Portland, Oregon.

Gill said that his interest in law started back when he was living in India. He described seeing a man who cleaned the Gill home for living wrongfully accused of stealing jewelry.

Authorities took the man in front of a crowd and beat him for the alleged crime. “I still remember as a little boy, walking out to the courtyard,” Gill said, “And they were wailing on him, they were beating on him”

This experience set the tone for how the rest of his life would play out. Gill began his career as a public prosecutor and after 15 years, he was appointed as chief Salt Lake City prosecutor by former Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson.

Gill would go on to become the first Indian born district attorney in the history of the United States. Over the years Gill developed a passion for mental health issues and drug abuse, and the way that both tie together.

For Gill, mental health issues can lead to drug abuse, which then leads to prison for most. Unfortunately, instead of helping people with these problems while in prison and when they get out, he believes the system of continually sending them to prison becomes a habit.

“We as a result start locking up people that we dislike rather than locking up people that we are afraid of,” Gill said.

Numbers based on the people inside of the prisons is disproportionate to who is on the streets.

Two to five percent of people in society suffer from some kind of mental illness. Yet, 17 to 21 percent of people in prison suffer from some kind of mental illness.

How are these numbers so different and what different solutions are at society’s disposal?

Gill’s plan for the mentally ill who keep moving through the revolving door from the street, to prison and back again is for them to commit to a carefully supervised treatment plan.

Defendants who are ready to commit to a 12-36 month treatment plan will have support through Mental Health Court, administered by Third District Court in downtown Salt Lake City.

The treatment only excludes sex offenders, active DUI cases, excessively violent, and mentally incompetent people who cannot be treated with proper medication. This allows the program to reach a wide variety of people.

Gill believes, that if the people are ready to buckle down and commit to the treatment plan, then they are ready to be free of their addiction and able to treat their mental disease with some responsibility and determination.

Offering respect to those who struggle with mental illness pays off, Gill believes. “The worst thing you can do to a person is to make them insignificant, to disrespect them.”

So far, the program has been a success in several ways. The state has lowered the cost to treat the people in the program while increasing their care at the same time.

The average length of a prison stay for program participants has also decreased.

Chad Myers, a recovering drug addict who lives in Salt Lake City supports Gill’s view of restorative justice, including mental health court.

“I’ve been sober for four months now and I credit the majority of my sobriety to the programs put in place for me,” Myers said.

“My rehabilitation is going to be a battle that I face my entire life, but if I continue to be strong and work with the resources around me then I know that I will succeed in the end.”

Although Myers does not have any mental health, he still knows the depths of addiction.

“Every day is going to be a struggle because I was heavily addicted to cocaine, but I am confident in myself and what I am doing to know that I will not be going back.”

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In Salt Lake County, a better option for justice

Posted on March 8, 2012 by comm5775

by MCKENZIE DEAN

Since its creation in July 2001, mental health court in Salt Lake County is booming with results– helping not only individuals but the community, as well.

Two to five percent of people in the world deal with some sort of mental illness. Out of that percentage, 17 to 21 percent of inmates in United States jails are mentally ill.

“We do not think prison rehabilitates the person who is struggling,” said Tammi Odegard, Pahrump, Nev., Specialty Court Coordinator.

About 400 miles north of Pahrump, Salt Lake City is also addressing similar issues of treating the chronically mentally ill in the court system.

Mental health court is a combination of criminal justice and mental health agencies. An adult and juvenile mental health court has been established in the Utah courts for many counties. It provides services for treatment and case management, along with community supervision. The program’s goal is to leave each patient with improved mental health and personal well-being.

In addition, mental health court reduces recidivism and improves public safety, Odegard said. The goal is to decrease clients’ contact with the criminal justice system by providing different courts with resources that will improve the social function of the clients. Along with treatment and support, mental health courts link their clients with housing and employment opportunities, as well.

“These types of courts provide immense amounts of advantages to help the client, especially, dealing with their cases. It provides additional incentives for them to do well and prove themselves to the judge that will be their final sentence,” Odgeard said.

Graduating from a type of program like mental health or drug court also helps in a large aspect with other agencies in the judicial system, such as family court and with challenges of child custody. The program requires those who participate to demonstrate responsibility and a desire to change their ways. Officials in Salt Lake County have similar feelings on the issue.

“We need to be smart prosecutors, not zero tolerance,” said Sim Gill, Salt Lake County District Attorney, who has supported mental health and drug courts throughout his career as a prosecutor.

Gill points out that that before the implementation of mental health court in Third District Court in Salt Lake City, the commission of new crimes by the mentally ill hovered at 68 percent. Mental health court has helped decrease that number by 17 to 19 percent.

By keeping the chronically mentally ill from returning to jail time and again, society is saving money on public resources, too, Gill said.

Every 230 days an “event failure” occurs. Gill spoke of an event failure as a criminal who repeats another crime. Results have shown that after one goes through the mental health court, the number of days that a mentally ill person re-offended had increased to 1,300.

Although mental health court is voluntary and requires a long-term commitment — one year on average —  Gill and other proponents believe the program’s benefits far outweigh its costs.

In Third District mental health court, 51 to 100 participants enter the program each year. The court accepts participants who have been diagnosed with Axis I disorders- mental illnesses that are persistent or serious and require medications. Upon completion of the program, participants’ are likely to be reduced or entirely dismissed.

In the process of implementing mental health court in Utah, access to mental health resources has greatly increased. Gill said a vast number of people lack the access to get help, leading to the continuation of repetitive crimes and a resulting burden on the courts. Mental health court has helped to change that.

“We need to take care of their addiction, not just lock them up,” Gill said.

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From India to District Attorney; Sim Gill fights for Salt Lake County

Posted on March 8, 2012 by comm5775

by TODD PATTON

As a young boy in India, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill developed a metaphorical theory from a real life experience.

Gill, 52, spoke in a faint Indian accent of a formative moment from his youth, to a classroom of 13 students recently at the University of Utah.  At the age of “eight or nine” in his native India, Gill said, he witnessed the brutal beating of a man accused of stealing jewelry from a neighbor’s home, and in the end, the beating of an innocent man.

“That left a very strong impression on me,” Gill said, “that when you have that authority, when you have that power, when you have that capacity to alter and impact people’s lives, you have to really use that with a great level of deference and responsibility.”

Gill immigrated soon after that with his family to the United States. Years later, Gill studied history and philosophy at the University of Utah and as a young prosecutor, this memory would influence his practices.  Gill’s background in philosophy was the obvious reasoning behind his principles as a liberal prosecutor, pronounced when he wrote the term “Restorative Justice” on the classroom whiteboard. That phrase, he explained, helps to explain his approach to addressing certain chronic crimes in Salt Lake County.

Since Gill took office in 2011, initiatives such as drug and mental health court are examples of how helping a troubled person is a much better option than simply incarcerating him.

Rehabilitation courts, Gill said, are one  solution to limited resources.  Having a “zero tolerance” policy is one thing many citizens want, but Gill described that model as “doomed to failure.”  Writing  on the whiteboard, again, Gill emphasized that a “zero tolerance” model would require unlimited resources, a limited number of cases and unlimited time.

Advocates for rehabilitation not only come in the form of Sim Gill, but organizations and individuals who have first-hand knowledge of addiction.

Volunteers of America (VOA) is a non-profit organization in Salt Lake City that deals with the homeless, directly on the street.  And former VOA employee, Kyle Patton, has similar sentiments towards Gill’s approach as a district attorney.

“It’s important to have those types of resources for the homeless. I think drug and mental health court help to put their [homeless population] behavior into context,” Patton said. “People get all up in arms about institutionalizing the mentally ill. But I think resources like these courts are one of the solutions to that problem.”

In late February, a rally at the Utah State Capitol was held for those, who like Gill and Patton, champion the issue of rehabilitation.  “Drug Court Works. Ask Us how,” one homemade sign read. Held by a woman among the hundreds of people who had gathered to implore Utah legislators for more funding.

“Hope=funding,” was another common sign at the rally, as recovering addicts and public officials spoke to echoed cheers.

“Not everybody needs treatment, but we all need an opportunity to have it,” said one recovering addict named Shannon. “Your story matters, so find your representative and tell them why recovery is so vital for our future. We can all work together to change the system.”

Gill’s ultimate mission is to help those who can no longer help themselves. And in the United States, the prison population is made up of 17 to 21 percent of mentally ill inmates, Gill said. This statistic that is the driving force behind rehabilitation courts for those afflicted with substance abuse and the mentally ill who no longer have support.

Utilizing these initiatives is completely voluntary, but those in dire situations can no longer say  they didn’t get a break,” Gill said. “Restorative justice” ultimately presents a solution, instead of simply viewing those who lack support for their issues, as a problem.  Organizations like VOA and rallies at the Capitol can help present opportunities to those in need of help, but Gill has actual power to change the way things work.

Those two hours that Gill spoke about his beliefs, he didn’t have to convince the students to vote for him, or find a way to get funding for a project.

It was just simply two hours of Sim Gill being exactly who he is.

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Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, mental health court, address criminal recidivism in Utah

Posted on March 8, 2012 by comm5775

by JAVAN RIVERA

Taking action to solve Utah’s homeless problem could save Salt Lake City taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Homeless men and women wander the streets of downtown Salt Lake City every day. Many avoid the homeless, brush off their panhandling and go about their daily business. They never stop to think about how these people ended up in their current situation, much less how the growing problem of the mentally ill homeless population might cost far more in taxes than a handful of quarters to a panhandler ever will.

Since 2001, the Salt Lake County mental health court has been helping to reduce the rate of criminal recidivism among Salt Lake City’s mentally ill. Through a system of what Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill likes to call “restorative justice,” the mental health court has reduced repeat offenses through weekly court dates and proper medication. This therapeutic take on justice is what Gill believes will not only help with Salt Lake City’s homeless criminal offense problem, but also save taxpayers a lot of money.

“We are bankrupting ourselves into oblivion,” Gill said of the current system of “zero tolerance” enacted by most of U.S. law and justice systems. “We need to seek out alternatives to incarceration; we need to focus on therapeutic justice, and we need to focus on locking up those we are afraid of, not those who we don’t like.”

Salt Lake County’s mental health court works on what Gill calls a “system approach,” something he thinks of as simple problem-solving. He believes that all too often, the legal system relies on “crisis management” rather than proactively preventing repeat offenses by taking active measures right away. This is the core of mental health court.

“The neat thing about the people we serve in mental health court is that simple medication is often enough to reduce recidivism,” said Jeannie Edens, supervisor of the Day Reporting Center of Criminal Justice Services (DRC).

Edens’ work at DRC allows her to see the benefits of mental health court both for the participants who are sent to the program as well as the taxpayers whose money is being put to more efficient use. She feels that the work being done at DRC is important to a fair judicial system.

DRC provides an alternative to jail time by allowing criminals to participate in intensive case management that includes treatment, educational and employment opportunities to prevent criminal recidivism. DRC  works regularly with Salt Lake County’s mental health court.

“In a regular court setting a judge may not know that a person has mental health problems,” Edens said. “They think it’s just another substance abuse problem and could sentence them to longer and harsher punishments.”

It’s those longer sentences that usually end up costing Utah taxpayers. According to Gill, conservatively, the average cost of detaining, treating and processing a mentally ill criminal offender is often in the range of thousands of dollars. That includes the cost of police dispatch, ambulance, medical treatment, court processing, and jail time—all of which, Gill said, is coming out of the taxpayer’s wallet.

“So it’s not just a good progressive idea that I’m talking about,” Gill said. “It’s become a fiscal reality as well.”

For Gill, however, mental health court provides more than just an opportunity to reduce repeat offenses and increase fiscal efficiency in Salt Lake County’s criminal justice system. It also allows the criminal justice system to treat these mentally ill offenders in a manner that denotes respect and dignity, despite their current situation.

“The worst thing you can do to a person is make them insignificant,  to disrespect them,” Gill said. “This program [mental health court] respects them.”

It’s that respect that Gill believes has helped to bring about the success of mental health court in Salt Lake County. Through the program, officials have seen a decrease of recidivism from 68 percent to between 17 to 19 percent among participants, Gill said. Additionally, the number of “event failures,” the amount of time between significant lapses of criminal behavior, have increased from an average of 230 days to more than 1,300 days.

“Is this a perfect model? Absolutely not,” Gill said. “Is it a better one? Damn straight.”

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Sim Gill: Policing the police

Posted on March 8, 2012 by comm5775

by BILLY YANG

In the United States, we like to think we’re number one in everything we do. There’s one top ranking, however, that the land of the free should not be so proud of: The U.S. incarcerates the most people in world.

More than Russia, more than China — the U.S. has about 2.2 million people in prisons and jails today, according to the U.S Department of Justice.

The majority of people now held in those prisons fall into three groups, which include minorities, the poor and the mentally ill, said Salt Lake County District Attorney, Sim Gill.

Gill, who served as a prosecutor for Salt Lake City for 16 years before he was elected as Salt Lake County District Attorney in 2010, has largely focused on helping to relieve the legal system of the burden of being the largest mental health institution in the U.S.

“The largest, number one, mental health facility in America is the L.A. County Jail,” Gill said. “By default, we have made our jails and prisons the mental health warehouses of our community.”

As a proponent of alternatives to incarceration, and not being content with the status quo, Gill introduced the idea of Mental Health Court to Salt Lake City 10 years ago. There were only eight other similar programs in the country at the time.

“We [prosecutors and police] are here to solve problems, not just simply process and warehouse people,” Gill said.

The chronically homeless and people who are considered a public nuisance generally have some form of mental illness, Gill said. Because they come from lower economic backgrounds, they typically cannot afford medications to help them function in society.

“Drugs are a poor man’s form of self-medication,” Gill said.

The vicious cycle begins when the mentally ill turn to illicit drugs to alleviate symptoms of their disease, such as hearing voices in their heads. They take drugs, cause problems, get arrested and get released from jail, only to head back to square one.

“I know very few mentally ill people who wake up in the morning and say ‘let me see how many crimes I can go out and commit,’ ” Gill said. “Often, the criminal activity is a consequence of their mental illness.”

Gill’s model for Mental Health Court is part of what he calls therapeutic justice. Mental Health Court operates within Utah’s Third Judicial District and is an alternative to jail time for people with mental disorders who have been picked up by law enforcement. The program is completely voluntary, and seeks to provide participants with the help they need.

Mental Health Court targets people who have been charged with misdemeanors and felonies and have been identified with axis one disorders – such as schizophrenia, schizo-effective and bipolar disorders, conditions that can be treated with medication.

People who take part in this program have to maintain weekly contact with their assigned caseworker. This is to help ensure the participant is properly taking medication as prescribed.

“The number one reason why someone who’s mentally ill stops taking their medication… because they start feeling good,” Gill said.

By Gill’s own account, Mental Health Court has been a success. Gill uses the recidivism rate as a measure. Before the program was instituted, the recidivism rate for offenders with mental illness was 68 percent. After Mental Health Court took hold in Salt Lake County, that number dropped to 19 percent.

Another inequity Gill started to examine while he was a Salt Lake City prosecutor is the disproportionate number of minorities in prisons and jails.

Gill, the first Indian-born person to be elected a district attorney in the U.S., served on the Salt Lake Committee on Racial Justice when he was the city’s public prosecutor.

The committee conducted an audit of the prosecutor office as it related to its treatment of minorities. The panel did not find any statistical proof that minorities were unfairly prosecuted. But the audit revealed certain ethnic groups had an arrest rate five times higher than others.

Gill believes such evaluations of governmental agencies are important and sees them as ways to ensure justice is properly served. He also believes audits help identify areas for improvement.

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Mental health court offers refuge for repeat offenders

Posted on March 8, 2012 by comm5775

by BLAKELY BOWERS

Watching as law enforcement officials beat a near elderly man, as ordered by the prosecutor, a young boy was impacted forever.  Eight year-old Sim Gill, growing up in his native India, could not shake the image from his mind. He later found out the man had been wrongly accused of theft.

The childhood experience continues to inspire Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, as he works to restore justice on a day-by-day basis. Gill stands behind his mission statement to be firm and fair, swift and sure of holding offenders accountable for their criminal conduct.

In the United States,  more people are jailed than in any other country. The number of ethnic minorities in prison tops the list. U.S. incarceration rates are growing at a staggering rate. According to Gill, from 1970 to 2011, the numbers of jail and prison inmates grew from 700,000 to 2.2 million.

“We need a new approach,” Gill said. “We are locking up people we dislike, not just the people we are afraid of.”  The jailing of so many people has major impacts on all aspects of life in the United States, he said. The numbers affect society, especially in rising costs to the taxpayer.

What “new approach” could possibly work?  Gill believes it all begins with reforming mental health aid and with offering help to the chronically mentally ill. In order for a new approach to be funded and to work credibly, it needs to be safe for all involved, just and it must make fiscal sense.

More than one-fourth of people in jail suffer from mental illness, Gill said, explaining how the cycle of jail time typically works for the mentally ill: They serve time for crimes such as public intoxication and trespassing, then get released back to the streets and commit the same crimes again.

This is where Gill’s ultimate passion comes into play: Mental health court.  Those who have been charged with a crime and have mental disorders have the opportunity to voluntarily attend the program, within Utah’s Third District Court. Excluding sex offenders, active DUI cases, and excessively violent people, the court’s purpose is to closely supervise mentally ill defendants for 12 to 36 months.

“This is the fair break, the one opportunity given to these individuals who crave dignity of being treated as a human being.” Gill said.

Scott Mathis, a graduate of mental health court, attributes all of his success and confidence to the program. “I was lost, lost and confused. I was without any options and down deep into a dark hole without sight of any change. This program is the reason I am healthy today,” Mathis said. Because mental health court is voluntary, the individuals attending have consciously chosen to be there. The program’s volunteer nature has real impact on a participant’s attitude and commitment. The focus is not simply on punishment, but on treatment.

On its face, the program may seem to be letting criminals off easily. But mental health court‘s long-term recovery goal requires a solid commitment from those who participate. They are required to attend all meetings, get tested for drugs, evaluations and report to their assigned officer. “The program is not easy, that’s all I have to say,” Mathis said with an honest smirk. “It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but without a doubt, the best thing, too.”

Mathis now holds a full-time job in Salt Lake City, participates in speaking groups and serves as an active advocate for the program that turned his life around forever. “ I had been in and out of jail for numerous reasons, nothing ever changed. If not for the program I would be in jail, with fines up my ass, without any job options, and most critical, my three year-old son would not have a father in his life,” Mathis said.

Mathis has now been sober for almost two years, and has custody of his son.

“The mental health court program has potential to lift up our communities in countless ways. My life would not be the same without it, period.”

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Mentally ill find refuge and help at mental health court

Posted on March 8, 2012 by comm5775

by TRICIA OLIPHANT

About 45 people assembled inside a Third District Courtroom in the Scott M. Matheson Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City and waited to talk to the judge.

An elderly man, who wore a brown, baggy suit coat that hung awkwardly on his small body, kindly greeted some old friends and then sat quietly among the audience.  He stared at his hands folded tightly in his lap and waited for his name to be read.

A woman, who appeared to be about 25, wore bright, tight-fitting clothing and tall stiletto heels.  Several pairs of large, flashy earrings adorned her ears.  Before sitting down, she chatted with friends, laughing and sharing jokes.

The court bailiff stood at the front of the room and read a list of names. Those who heard their names left their seats and stepped forward.

One-by-one, each stood at the podium and spoke with Third District Court Judge Judith Atherton about the events of the past week.

Welcome to Salt Lake County’s mental health court. The defendants here will not be sentenced to hard time in jail, so long as they commit to certain rules of behavior and take their medication.

The Salt Lake County Mental Health Court was founded more than 10 years ago.

“One of our main purposes here at mental health court [is] to get people to a point that they can maintain for the rest of their lives,” said Atherton, at mental health court earlier this year.

The mental health court program is voluntary. Participants commit to participate for 12 to 36 months.

Those participating stand before Atherton every week as she reviews the weekly report submitted by the participant’s caseworker.

In addition, participants agree to take all medications as prescribed and to obey all laws and other regulations.  Participants have contact throughout the week with their caseworkers to ensure compliance with these regulations.

If participants come to court and are off their medications, Atherton will order them to jail to be stabilized.

“The first thing we’re concerned about, Derek, is your welfare,” said Atherton to a mental health court participant.

The number one reason for mentally ill people to stop taking their medications is that they feel well and no longer believe they need medication, said Salt Lake County District Attorney, Sim Gill, who has made mental health court one of his top social justice priorities.  That is one of the reasons for frequent court appearances.

“Thank you for helping me. Thank you,” said Justin, who graduated from mental health court on Monday. “Everyone in here can do this.”

All who were present, including Atherton, applauded and congratulated the recent graduate.

Those eligible to participate in the mental health court have committed a misdemeanor or a felony, have an Axis one disorder (which means that their disorder can be treated with medical support), and must be legally competent.

Mental health court excludes the participation of sex offenders, those with open-active DUI cases, and the “excessively violent.”
“Is this a perfect model? Absolutely not. Is it a better model? [Darn] straight,” Gill said.

Gill said that the United States once had mental health institutions.  However, the institutions were abused and were therefore demolished by the Reagan Administration during the 1980s.

“By default, we have made jails and prisons [the] mental health institutions of our country,” Gill said. The Los Angeles County Jail,  he said, is the largest mental health facility in the United States.

Gill added that criminal activity is often a result of mental illness.

And, after mentally ill people are released from jail or prison, they often repeat the same crimes or commit new crimes because of their untreated illnesses.

The U.S. leads the world in jailing the most people, followed by China, Russia, and Cuba.

This excess in jailing U.S. citizens uses tax dollars and resources.

Gill said that the solution to this is something he calls “smart prosecution.” This includes alternatives to incarceration, therapeutic justice and locking up only those who genuinely breed fear in society, as opposed to those we simply do not like.

Mental health court is a form of smart prosecution and was created under the “systems,” or problem solving, approach.

“We lowered cost but increased care [with this model],” Gill said.

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Drug courts beneficial for users seeking rehabilitation

Posted on March 6, 2012 by comm5775

by KATIE HARRINGTON

The Utah State Courts report that arrests for drug-related crimes have doubled in recent years, which has become motivation for the state to turn to drug court programming over incarceration.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill helped to implement drug courts in Utah more than 10 years ago.

But with continually rising drug arrests, the program has become important in recent years as a way to lower costs of incarceration for the Utah taxpayer.

“Drug courts work by recognizing that unless substance abuse ends, fines and jail time are unlikely to prevent future criminal activity,” according to the Utah State Courts.

Gill said the average cost to jail someone in Salt Lake County is $71 a day, a sum that quickly adds up when the rate of incarceration for non-violent drug users is consistently increasing.

“Crime is going to be around,” Gill said. “My challenge has been to create a situation where we can proactively reach in and collaborate with our communities in order to not be crisis managers, but be proactive agents who contribute to alleviating these issues.”

Gill said the way to do this is by promoting rehabilitation. After treatment in drug courts, Gill said, the recidivism arrest rate—that is, the likelihood in which people commit new crimes—decreased from 68 percent to around 23 percent.

John Anderson, a criminal defense attorney in Salt Lake City, said the criminal recidivism rate is universally accepted in the legal system as statistical fact and speaks to the success of the programming.

According to the Urban Institute and the Center for Court Innovation, the success of drug courts has been seen nationwide. A study of 23 drug courts in seven states showed that drug use was reduced by one-third after 18 months of participation in the programs, and the case studies were responsible for half as many criminal acts as those not participating in drug court.

“Largely because of these reductions in criminal behavior, drug courts ended up saving an estimated $5,680 dollars per participant,” the study said.

But Anderson said that drug courts are only successful for those who actually want to be there.

“The courts are hard-core. The requirements to participate are onerous. If someone puts in some effort and takes it seriously, they can curb the addictions and behaviors that got them there in the first place.”

If someone doesn’t want to actively participate in the programming, jail time seems to be the easier alternative, Anderson said.

Tiffany Brown, who served as a Utah Assistant Attorney General and Salt Lake County District Attorney, has actively worked with drug court participants.

“It’s hard for me as a taxpayer or as a member of the legal system to incarcerate a person who is solely ingesting substances that are harmful to him or herself,” Brown said. “So when you have that straight drug user who doesn’t go out and commit property crimes or violent crimes, or doesn’t harm anyone else, I don’t want to waste money on that person—ever.”

Brown said drug court programming is an effective way to reduce costs because the taxpayers are not providing health care, foster care, and other programming for incarcerated people or their children.

But the system is not perfect, Brown said.

“It’s a uniquely designed system that helps take a step back from traditional legal procedures and promotes rehabilitation,” Brown said. “But flaws exist as a result of the inability to totally fund the system in the way that it needs to be funded, in order to ensure that the people who are participating are more concerned about usage and less concerned about being caught.”

If the person lacks the desire to recover, the program’s benefits drop substantially, Brown said.

But Gill said that overall, drug court is both the economically and psychologically sound alternative.

“It’s not just a good progressive idea that I’m talking about,” Gill said. “It has become a fiscal necessity.”

“The worst thing you can do to a person is make them feel insignificant.” Drug court programming has started to prevent that, he said.

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