Miscellaneous

Drug Court Dispute

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Who doesn't love a drug court? With a few exceptions, drug courts are the darlings of the judges and prosecutors who run them. Scads of warm and fuzzy success stories can't be wrong, can they?

In Macomb County, Michigan, the police department was concerned with the local drug court sentencing. So concerned, in fact, that the police stopped participating in the drug court. And as everyone knows, problem-solving courts require buy-in from all the players.

The court responded with a memorandum of sentencing, which lays out a graduated sentencing scale. According to the prosecutor, the new scale gives defendants a "finite" number of chances to succeed. Those who do not must serve time. (We thought this was the way all drug courts worked; evidently, we stand corrected.)

The prosecutor estimates that half of the drug court participants succeed. The drug court judge claims the success rate of those in drug court is 2-3 times better than jailed defendants.

The prosecutor's office has agreed to examine sentencing practices in the court, and in drug courts around the country. The office will also have access to defendants' drug testing records.

See Agreement Could Boost Business at Drug Court, Brian C. Louwers, C & G Newspapers (February 6, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).