OPINION: Save lives

In making cuts to the state court system, the Legislature should take care to preserve the drug courts, which work at a fraction of the cost of incarceration.

Drug courts in Pinellas and other counties are in danger of losing their funding as the Legislature slashes judicial appropriations. That means more defendants would end up in prison and more families would be torn apart. Given the Legislature's current bad mood, however, such humanitarian concerns aren't likely to register.

So let's talk about drug courts in terms that will get lawmakers' miserly attention. The state will save millions of dollars if it keeps its drug courts operating.

Last year, Pinellas County's drug court allowed 118 defendants who would otherwise have faced prison to be diverted to drug court and sentenced to either residential or out-patient drug treatment, according to the annual report. Considering that incarcerating one prisoner costs state taxpayers $28,000 a year, residential treatment ($14,000) and out-patient therapy ($2,500) are a bargain. So Pinellas drug court alone has saved taxpayers more than $3-million over the past two years.

Here is how it works. Instead of prosecuting nonviolent drug users, the state attorney's office allows some defendants to enter drug court. There they undergo a substance-abuse evaluation and are placed in a 12-month (or more) treatment program, which allows the defendant to avoid a criminal record. The judge requires frequent drug testing and will toss defendants back into criminal court if they fail to abide by the rules.

The numbers say that Pinellas drug court has been a success. Of the defendants who graduated from the program, only 7 percent have committed another drug offense. Of those actively involved in drug court, only 13 percent have been re-arrested. By those measures, drug court is working for eight out of 10 participants and at a fraction of the cost of incarceration.

Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe admits he had early doubts about drug court. Not any longer. "I'm becoming more and more convinced it's the right thing to do and worth preserving," he said.

Unfortunately, drug court's survival is in doubt. The Legislature is considering harmful funding cuts for the state's courts, from top to bottom. Lawmakers have not yet decided on a key issue - whether the state or individual counties should take on the responsibility for drug court. If it is left to the counties, then they should be given an adequate funding source, such as a fee on court cases that would raise enough money to pay for administration as well as treatment programs.

Some may wonder: If hard-hearted lawmakers won't find a way to adequately fund classrooms and health programs for the needy, what chance does drug court have? But just as spending for education and preventive care are sound financial decisions, so too does drug court make sense.

The Legislature needn't do it to save the lives of Florida residents who have been ensnared by drugs. It needn't do it to spare families the harm of a parent's or child's imprisonment. The Legislature should support drug court because it will save money as well as lives.

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