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Treatment over incarceration

Drug courts help increase number of offenders who avoid prison

File photo / Ed Runyan In April 2021, 10 people graduated from Mahoning County’s drug court and expressed gratitude to have a life back without drugs. Another 18 people were entering a new class then, a small number because of the ongoing pandemic, compared to the 45 to 55 that would be normal. Amy Klumpp, right, felony drug court coordinator for Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, hugs one of the 10 people who graduated from drug court.

Felony drug courts in Mahoning and Trumbull counties are helping to steer some of those facing criminal prosecution on substance abuse-related charges into treatment, instead of prison.

The special courts are designed to help those facing lower-level felony drug crimes avoid state prison time, if they are willing to help themselves by going through extensive intervention programs designed to help them break away from the drug and alcohol abuse habits that led them to the court system.

Mahoning County’s felony drug court has been in operation under Judge John Durkin for about 25 years.

Judges, attorneys, law enforcement officials and treatment professionals work collaboratively to divert offenders out of the criminal justice system and aid them in living productive and drug / alcohol free lives, according to the courts.

Mahoning’s felony drug court now has 20 participants, which is a decrease from the average of 45 people in years prior to the pandemic. It is, however, an increase over the 18 people it had in 2021.

“We hit the low because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Amy Klumpp, coordinator of the program for the past 17 years, said. “We’ve simply had fewer people going through all courts than in prior years.”

Since its inception, Mahoning County’s felony drug court has had 714 graduates and 548 who were terminated from it. Only 9 percent of the graduates returned to court facing drug charges, statistics show. Nationally, the recidivism rate is 30 percent.

Of drug court participants in Mahoning, 943 are white and 308 are black.

TRUMBULL COUNTY

Trumbull’s felony drug court has been operating since 2000. Judge Andrew Logan, working with other local officials, established the drug court as a way to reduce the number of people being sent to prison on nonviolent drug-related crimes.

“The biggest benefit is providing people opportunities to work on their issues with drug and alcohol while free, instead of in prison,” Darryl Rodgers, coordinator of Trumbull County’s felony drug court program, said. “This is an alternative that is effective and compassionate. It provides opportunities to address drug, alcohol and mental health issues that may drive criminal behaviors.”

Drug courts are the single most successful and effective way of getting assistance to people with substance-use disorders, Rodgers said.

Drug court also helps the county because it provides approximately $6,208 per participant in state dollars, Rodgers said.

Rodgers described there being just as great of a need for these courts today as there was when he began working with them more than a decade ago.

There have been 4,253 known overdoses in Trumbull County over the last five years, according to Rodgers. There have been 537 overdose deaths during that period, averaging 107 overdose deaths per year.

Over the last five years, Trumbull’s felony drug court had 354 people who have gone through its program. It had 252 graduates and 102 who failed to complete the program. Those who failed to complete the program were sentenced to prison for the charge to which they originally pleaded when they agreed to enter the program.

People within the program must be drug free for at least six months prior to graduation.

Throughout the program, participants are required to attend all required classes, support group meetings and are required to submit to random tests to determine if they are using.

“We have a 71 percent completion rate,” Rodgers said.

STATEWIDE

A 2021 American Civil Liberties Union report titled “Are Drug Courts the Answer? In Ohio, It’s Hard to Tell,” states there are 135 specialized adult and adult juvenile drug court dockets in Ohio.

Drug courts operate in 61 of the state’s 88 counties, according to the January 2021 ACLU report. At the time, there were 73 felony level drug courts on the common pleas level in Ohio; 18 juvenile drug courts; 37 municipal drug courts; six county courts and one family drug court.

According to the ACLU, out of 35 drug courts examined, 85 percent of the adult participants were white and 12.4 percent of the adult participants were black. Of the juvenile courts examined, some 63.6 percent of the drug court participants were white and 7 percent identified themselves a multiple racial.

There are three kinds of drug courts: juvenile, mental health and adult felony, according to the ACLU report.

DIFFERENCES

In Mahoning, felony drug court participants are being provided treatment in lieu of conviction.

“Those who complete the program will not have criminal records because they never were criminally convicted of any drug charge connected to a drug arrest,” Klumpp said.

“In other counties, those entering the program must plead guilty to the drug offense, and their sentences are held in abeyance until after they complete the program,” she said. “Once completed, they have to apply to have the charges removed from their records.”

Trumbull’s drug court is separate from its intervention in lieu of conviction program.

“In lieu of conviction is a very narrow program under the statutes,” Rodgers explained. “You have to be very disciplined to follow it. That’s why more people choose to go through drug court. It can be more flexible. It takes time to learn how to manage.”

In Trumbull County, about 75 percent of those entering the felony drug court program have been white and 25 percent are black.

Rodgers said he does not know why there is such an inequity in those numbers.

Trumbull’s program has been taking in about 70 new participants per year.

“We did not drop off a lot during the pandemic,” he said. “We made some alterations — did some Zoom meetings — but people were still in need for services.”

There are misdemeanor drug courts in Girard and Newton Falls and a family court drug court in the Trumbull County Juvenile Court.

Rodgers argues these drug courts have been effective in helping people through their substance-abuse issues because the programs are not adversarial.

COURT CONTROL

Both counties’ drug courts work with a team of agencies, including adult parole authority, probation officers, Meridian Health, Mahoning and Trumbull County mental health boards and others.

“When someone enters Mahoning’s drug court, they are agreeing to the court controlling their lives,” Klumpp said. “They have no choices. We evaluate what level of care is needed and facilities they need and send them to them. The choices are ours.”

Placing the decision-making in the hands of the court often provides stability and direction to those going through it.

Those in the program meet with Durkin at least once per week, Klumpp said. Those graduating from drug court are usually in it for 12 to 16 months.

“Too often people — even those with the best intentions — enter a drug treatment program and drop out over and over again,” she said. “They are more accountable under this program. If they fail the program, they will be sent to prison.”

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