BRENTWOOD — A new drug court program in Rockingham County Superior Court will offer some nonviolent drug offenders the chance to participate in a court-supervised treatment program instead of going to jail.
The $350,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will fund the program for three years, according to Joan Bishop, who will coordinate the program. She said the goal is to prevent recidivism among drug users — and to keep those people out of prison.
"They'll be a more productive member of society and not draining resources that we all need," she said.
The program, based on a national model used in Grafton and Strafford counties, would include regular drug testing and meetings with treatment counselors instead of jail time. Cases would be reviewed weekly, and sanctions, including jail time, would be imposed as soon as a participant fails to meet the program's standards. The program would last 12 to 18 months for each offender.
Bishop said people often think not sending a person to jail means being "soft on crime." But sometimes, she said, it's being smart.
"I would rather be smart on crime, and do what's best for the person and the individual, than just simply lock people away, so we don't have this cycle of back and forth and in and out and back and forth, which we have now," she said.
The drug court is part of an ongoing statewide effort to reduce recidivism, which helps cut spending on the correctional system.
In a statement, Attorney General Michael Delaney said the grant "takes the state in the right direction."
"If we want to reduce the number of crimes related to drugs, we need to be more aggressive and effective in our treatment and rehabilitation of offenders with substance abuse disorders," he said.
Nearly 10 percent of the state population had reported alcohol abuse or dependence, and almost 11 percent reported drug abuse or dependence, compared with national averages of 7.59 percent for alcohol and 9.22 percent for drugs, according to a state task force on drug and alcohol abuse in 2007.
The report also found that the state's publicly funded treatment system could only serve 10 percent of the people who needed support.
Part of the grant will be used by the Seacoast Mental Health Center to hire a licensed drug and alcohol counselor dedicated to treating offenders in the county drug court program. Candidates for the program will include habitual non-violent drug offenders or those who suffer from mental illness.
"Someone that has a drug addiction problem, somebody that has tried to balance their life but has been unable to, and someone that's been in trouble with the law as a result of their drug addiction," Bishop said.
Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau will direct the program, along with a Rockingham County adult drug court team consisting of representatives from law enforcement, the county attorney's office, the public defender, local treatment providers and probation officers. The attorney general's office grants unit will be the fiscal administrator of the grant.
There are 10 to 15 people incarcerated in the county jail that might be immediately eligible for the program. Bishop said the program could probably take 12 to 15 offenders a year.
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