NORWICH – In recognition of National Treatment Court month in May, a number of community leaders attended the signing of a resolution applauding the success of the Chenango County Treatment Court over the last five years.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard Decker signed the resolution into the record May 15 with several representatives from law enforcement, social services and the judiciary in attendance.
Criminal Treatment Court was implemented in Chenango County in 2004. By that time, the program had met wide success and endorsement at the state and national levels from law enforcement and court officials.
The resolution stated: “Whereas in the past five years the Chenango County Treatment Court has effected savings of over $1,500,000 to the taxpayers of Chenango County and continues providing savings of over $1,000 daily through its ATI (Alternative To Incarceration) component.”
The savings are calculated using the likelihood of a candidate repeating an offense compared to conventional practices and adds the money saved from not holding individuals in incarceration.
According to reports, between 60 and 80 percent of drug offenders sent to prison or jail relapse. Those in probation have a national relapse rate of 40 percent. And, the national average of a drug court candidate suffering a relapse is the lowest of the three, at 17 percent.
The local relapse rate for the Chenango County Treatment Court is 19 percent. Of the 81 candidates who have been contracted into the program, 19 have failed out and were incarcerated. Sixty-two graduated and out of those, 12 relapsed and were later charged with additional crimes. Only two candidates, since its inception in 2004, have relapsed and committed felony level crimes.
After the resolution was signed, Chenango County Court Judge W. Howard Sullivan presided over a graduation of four of the program’s candidates at the Chenango County Courthouse.
Also in attendance for the graduation were past graduates of the program who elected to participate in order to show support for those still struggling with substance abuse.
Betty Currier, director of the Council on Addictions of New York State, spoke about her own past addition to alcohol and offered advice to the crowd.
“You might stay clean and sober while in prison, depending on the prison, maybe not. ... Some in drug court just want to do their time, a lot just want to stay out of jail, but after a few months in the program that begins to change for most,” she said.
Currier likened substance abuse to medical ailments such as heart disease and diabetes.
“We have a chronic life threatening disease. We must learn to cope with our ailment just as a diabetic must watch their diet and take insulin, we must take a look at the things in our lives, people, places, things and make changes in order to deal with our disease,” she said.
“Relapse is a natural part of the recovery process we don’t expect people to turn their lives around in a day,” said Treatment Court Coordinator James Everard.
Everard explained that many of the participants had set backs in the intensely monitored 12-month program that requires penalties called sanctions. Sanctions could range from a warning, to period of incarceration, to expulsion, decided on a case to case basis by the drug court team and the judge.
Participants are routinely drug tested, required to make weekly court appearances and attend treatment.
Since everyone in the program would have faced incarceration, expulsion from the court almost always means the individual is resentenced to state prison.
“What you see often is that people join the program to avoid incarceration and after about 3 or 4 months you start to see treatment working and they want to do it for themselves and their family,” said Everard.
Everard said frequency of offenses, their severity and personal attitude were taken into account by the 15-person treatment court team.
The team is comprised of representatives from Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services, family court, Catholic Charities, Morrisville State College, the district attorney, court attorneys, law clerks, the Department of Social Services, Public Defender’s Office, Dispute resolution, the New York State Police, Probation, Mental Health, CDO Work Force and includes Everard and the Judge Sullivan.
One of the graduates at the ceremony had completed the program without a single sanction.
“That’s not the norm; it is a very incredible accomplishment and the individual had a family and took his treatment very seriously,” explained Everard. The man suffered from alcohol addiction and was placed in the program after multiple DWI convictions.
In recognition of treatment courts both President Barack Obama and local congressman Michael Arcuri (D-NY) released statements in support of the program.
“As a district attorney, I quickly learned that no matter what initiatives law enforcement took to reduce the supply of drugs, it never really affected the demand for drugs” said Arcuri.
Later the congressman added, “I realized the powerful effect that the program had in helping enrolled participants get control of their addiction. The Drug Court program is a phenomenal program.”