Drug Court Proposed For Young Offenders Program Would Give Juveniles A Chance For Treatment Instead Of Jail

Spokane’s law-and-order leaders are planning to hatch a teen version of Drug Court sometime next year.

Drug Court offers nonviolent drug offenders the chance to avoid jail by going through a year of treatment.

More than 100 people have entered the Spokane County diversion program since it began two years ago. Twenty-four have graduated; a similar number have failed. Fifty-five are enrolled currently.

Court officials say they hope juvenile lawbreakers will get the same help in breaking their addictions - and, in many cases, the criminal activity tied to substance abuse.

It will take about a year to find money to support the teen program and make sure it is designed properly, supporters say.

They also don’t want the juvenile version to be a clone of the adult program in Superior Court.

By the time adults end up in Drug Court, they’ve had repeated run-ins with the law and often are ready to turn their lives around, Spokane County Superior Court Judge James Murphy said.

“But juvenile offenders think they’re immortal,” said Murphy, who presides over Drug Court. “These are the people who are hardest to motivate. They’re not making the same kinds of decisions at 15 or 16 as people do who are 30 or 40.

“But we have to get inside their heads. That’s where the challenge will be: getting them to address their problem,” Murphy said.

Based on the experience other counties have had with special courts for juvenile drug offenders, getting positive results requires more money and supervision than the adult version does.

Today, drug offenders sentenced in Juvenile Court usually are required to meet periodically with a treatment counselor. Urine testing is haphazard.

“It’s nowhere near as rigorous and as intensive as Drug Court would be,” Spokane County Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen said.

In Drug Court, the emphasis is on frequent testing to prevent relapses.

Offenders who sold or produced drugs or who have a history of violence are not eligible for the program.

“A key step is the one-to-one relationship between the offender and the judge,” Murphy said.

More so than in adult court, breaking juveniles’ drug dependence requires close involvement by family members, Eitzen said.

“That’s where many of the problems start,” she added.

Eitzen, who spent 1997 as the county’s Juvenile Court judge, said up to 90 percent of the cases she handled had some connection to drug or alcohol abuse.

She saw 12-year-olds committing crimes because of drug problems.

The planned juvenile program also will put the court in regular contact with school counselors.

“All that extra effort will make this idea very expensive,” Eitzen warned.

It takes about $2,000 a year to get one adult through Drug Court. The teen program could cost more than twice that much, she said.

Government grants pay most of the costs of Drug Court. Backers of the Juvenile Court plan say they expect to find federal money to start that program.

“It can make a difference if the kid is motivated and really acknowledges he’s ready to change,” Assistant Public Defender Dave Carter said.

But given a choice between spending a year in drug testing and treatment or sitting in a detention cell a few days, many offenders will take the latter option, Carter predicted.

“The experienced kids will look for the easiest route,” he said. “Once they get out of detention, they go right back to the same environment.”

Eitzen said she is convinced the program can be effective, straightening out a lot of young addicts.

“If this program is designed the right way, it could take a significant chunk out of juvenile crime,” she said.

, DataTimes