drug court

Mark Ostrem

at the end of august we submitted a grant proposal to the state court system requesting

we’ve got a pretty good committment from the partnering-type agnecies.

we’re hoping that we’ll get some resources t

a pretty good commitment-- we submitted a grant-- final touches

$250,000 two year grant-- one third matching requiement-- o.c. would need to mach

total budget

stearns county-- it’s my understanding -- continuation- operational

few==

few more start up costs - none of the drug testing equipment --any of the drug testing equipment-- i felt good that our request was a reasonable amount based on an up and running drug court

100,000-- drug-- court

requests-- due in august-- make a decision in either setember or october, made available first of hte year.

my hope is

i would personally like to seeit up and running the first of th eyear. i think that’s a little too agressvie there are lots o things we need to nail down and meet.

things to do-- what are the specific eligibility requiremetns for our program-- formulate

what are the termination criteria

if we could get going by the first of the year, I’d be really happy. i think more realistcally would be the first quarter to the first half of 2008.

first of the year-- first quarter to the first half-- providd we get the resource

most of that budget goes to supervising agents, testng

it goes back to my pri-- i represented

attorney staff it-- we’ve already got the judges.

the vast majority of my cases were somewhere controlled substance relat

most of budget to supervinsing agents, testing euqipment and trainng.

private pracitce i represented a thevast majority of my cases were controlled-substance related. I’m seeing that now as a prosecutor.

we’ve seen an overwhelig number of cases that come into our office that are either outright drug related or somewhow drugs are intertwined int ehbehavrior --we have to have some alternative. sending them prison simply isnt’ good enough. they come out of prison and they recommit.

you’ve got to somehow get a hold of their attention, hold it for a long enough time to get them

drug courts are really one of the few things that are doing that. they take the whole person, not just the drug treatment, and address everything.

employment, anger,

or-- outright drug related we have to have some alternative. sending them to prison isn’t good enough.

you’ve got to some how get a hold of their atention

drug courts really are one of the few things that are doing that-- not-- drug, employment, education, vocation skillsyou take the whole thing-- you make them do

you fixed all the various, that’s what will stop the recidivism-- people that are seriously chemical-so dpeende--

they need a much longer-term of treatment-- a longer period of time and a standard treatment won’t give that to them

standard 10 weeks. --need 18 months for meth addicts.

outpatient-- 15

tose are the type of people we woul dhave to get to -- typical drug court will have been through, non-violent offenders, used to firearm,

we don’t take people that are selling drugs as an enterprise--

it’s those checmically-depen people who ae

800 felony cases this year, easily 50 percent or morer are drug related

up to 50 might be candidates

25 par

15 to 25 participants

dodge and wabasha-- that’s a typical story

it takes about that long to flip the switch and get them to understand-- stop using

i love goign to the graduation because you see not the only

from the cour tstandpiong it does reallocate a bit

15 to 25 participants-- would be seen one by judge-- they would not be seen

reallocates-- when these--the drug court can impose an immediate sanction and do it in one hearing--

yes there is a little bit more time on the dug court -- on the back end of it, get passed a few voilatios== continuing drug use,

clean and sober

that means so much to those participants-- maybe the first week or two 60 the courtroom

phase-- 1 prosecuotrs, public defenders ent, court services and dfo, treatment roviders are enthusi

the last piece really to get goin was getting the judges to say yes we’ll try it. i’ll have to admit there is still a bit of skepticism among the judges as to whetehr it will be successful.

it really can be very

juvenile-- don’t have enough when you are dealing with juv the offender you are also dealing with their parents.

hw can impose-

ou need to start with adult drug court and then see how you can apply it to other areas

sanctions-- ti

alcohol and drug00 primarily drug dependence, primarily high risk butnot to say there aresome alcohol offenders. vast majority.

we’ll corss our fingers

__________

judge smith

ramsey started in 1998 with an overall substance abuse initiate-- adress across al the case type

we were looking at how address across

started with first drug court in 2001- started our juvenile substance abuse

a year later, started adult sustance oct. 30, 2002

five years

we are in the midst of doing our own study, lenght of -- the problem with evaluating drug courts in minnesota ours is one o the longest one-- to get any post-graduation data

we do know that in terms o- i think our recividism rate is 87 percent have not reoffended, -- reoffenses have been for driving, not for dwis or felony arrests,

recidivism -- arrests -- not convitions.

driving offense-- no dwis, felony arres

arrestd

we’ve had some tremendous success. our program lasts anywhere from 12 months to 24 months. -- only one person finished in 13 months-- upwards of three plus years-- had relapses-- e

there is really no magic number in that re

the one big thing we can point to in terms of saving the state mone-- 27 monts of sobriety 19to 20 -- arrested for 1st degree drug sa and scond

ordinarily policy

lower level, drug acitivy-- pres fraud, forgeries, theft- nonviolent

this was pretty rae to take this frist and secon

sober 27 months and counting-- gone to school, done everything expecte dof her -- meht

if sentence had been executed-- $200,000 plus dolars saved to the state becase we did not send her shakoppe-

cost saving

that was significant and that was just for one offender. people are always eager to look at the cost-benefit analysis but when we talk-- we work

primary treatment, develop a program of jobs, graduate

pay child support-- make payments it’s all those untold things that you can’t really put a cost value on and how it ultimately benefits the community.it’s a very positive thing that we’re doing-- this type of a program is for people that have some level of motivation to want to get sober and cleaning.

ramsey-- capacity of up to 100, 60 some

dropout to reuglar probation-- toerhs

this is pretty much the last ditch here if they don’t make it here.

i’ve been a jduge almost 24 years now and it was between year 13 and 15 and i started seeing people come through arraignmetn court

grandchi-- i was one day sitting-- i thought all we continue to do is just process human misery so many of thes epeople are not bad people, they just have a horrible additction

what we’ve been doing wasn’t working. how can we really address this underlying issue that brings so many

it was withath -- started a program looking at underage, young adults 18 and 21

we looked at something much broader the drug courts becamse a place where we could work collaborative-- found that by sharing resources and working together we could

we juv, adult, standalone mental health, dwi

one of the big issues is tring to involve the failies an

you can treat a kid an dyou can put the kid into residential treatment or even group home living situations-- if you are not add the family compon and they are going into the family situation.

parent-- filing a contempt action, leverage, our co

how within the juvenile system, major issue

gary bastian judy bastian

our cases are boc-- i get the same numb-- an judge you’ll talk to that does this kind of work has a passion t

for me in all of my years as a judge this is abs the most rewarding work i have done as a judge

thrusdya-- it’s just that kindof an exp because you really get the opp to see people change and not to come back in te system and public-- we’re so

i am so much more -- the public safety as a n isse is really being addressed

it is sk -- any relucatac i woul dhav eor any other-- it’ slike for me brin gi ton i don’t mind that i have a day less tme-- not alljudge it’s manage

we’re not considered a limited way of doing bu

i havne’ theard any judge

minensota doesn’t hav ea lot of d

this have been going on since 1989 and all over the country they ahve been going on-- janet reno-- 1989, dade county prosecutor, flordia

there are studies from all over th

to me it’s whether or not these work is not a legitimate question to ask anymore. there

they do cut , some has anybody studied

judge jonane smith-- why not try something else -- minneost ais pretyt late to his part and were getting eno-- all you’ve got to do is look-- theyproblem solving courts have re-- greatest innovation in 30 years it’s really exciting to be par to of an dpeople ask me about wh

joanne smith== judge

judge