There are folks who are better served by not going to jail or prison. We cannot afford to lock up everyone nor should we.
If the drug rehabilitation works we restore a productive citizen at far less overall cost, to us, than locking them up only to have them repeat when they get out again.
Good luck Judge Waldrip with the program.
Challenge court gives alternative to addicts
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Brett Davis could hardly recognize the woman he married 12 years ago.
She was addicted to prescription drugs, was in trouble with the law and quickly spiraling out of control.
“I had lost my wife,” he said.
He had tried sending her to rehabilitation facilities, which he said just made her problems worse — facilitating connections with other users, and teaching her more ways to get the pills that were tearing their marriage apart.
It wasn’t until she became a part of Comal County’s “Challenge Court” program that the wounds drugs had inflicted on their lives slowly started to mend.
“I’m finally getting my wife back,” he said.
“Brett Davis” is a pseudonym, as he did not wish for he or his family’s real names to be used for this article.
After years of addiction led to more legal trouble, his wife had entered the challenge court — an intensive and probationary drug rehabilitation program started by the county in late 2007 as an alternative to normal prosecution.
“With addiction, what you have are people who cannot control their actions,” said District Judge Dib Waldrip, who helped found the challenge court. “Someone has to put a stop to that person’s downward spiral, and that’s what we try to do.”
Those arrested for a third-degree drug-related felony have the option to enter into the rigorous treatment and rehabilitation program instead of serving jail time, or being sentenced with deferred adjudication or regular probation.
In what is a two-year program, defendants essentially waive their normal legal rights to be monitored almost daily by probation officers, take regular drug tests and meet once a week with local judges to discuss their progress. If they relapse or otherwise don’t cooperate with treatment, they can then be sent to jail.
“A lot of families go through a lot of turmoil with drugs and alcohol,” Davis said. “The challenge court provides them with a vehicle to get the help even if they don’t want it.”
Waldrip said the regular probationary channels aren’t designed to help habitual drug users, with court hearings and meetings with probation officers spread apart over months.
“There’s no swiftness in any punishment that the justice system can dish out,” he said. “This way we get these people working toward rehabilitation day-in and day-out.”
The challenge court, also known as a drug court, is a tool employed by many local governments to deal with criminal addicts, including both Bexar and Guadalupe counties.
Waldrip said other courts have found that the program can reduce recidivism by as much as 45 percent.
The local challenge court is funded through state and federal grants, as well as a portion of fees collected from DWI and drug related convictions.
There are currently about 20 people in the county who are being treated through the challenge court, and Waldrip said he hoped it would become a more popular option as defense attorneys and others begin to trust the program as a viable sentencing alternative.
“I think this would be able to help everybody,” Davis said. “It gets people out of jail, rehabilitates them, and if they don’t cooperate, the judge lays down the hammer.”
