Drug Courts Make (modest) Progress in U.S.

The New York Times yesterday reported on the impressive inroads drug courts have made in the U.S. in two short decades:

Since the first drug court began work, in Miami in 1989, the idea has spread to more than 2,100 courtrooms in every state, though they still take in only a small fraction of addicted criminals. Offenders, usually caught in low-level dealing or stealing to support their addictions, volunteer for 9 to 18 months or more of intrusive supervision by a judge, including random urine testing, group therapy and mandatory sobriety meetings. The intent is a personal transformation that many participants say is tougher than prison — and with the threat of prison if they drop out or are kicked out.

“I’ve waited 22 months for this day, and I never thought I’d make it,” Scott Elkins, a 26-year-old hip-hop singer, told the Seattle audience in September. A cocaine user and dealer who had been clean for two years, Mr. Elkins had his felony charges dropped and has a job, his own music production company and marriage plans.

Drug courts across the country have cut recidivism rates in half and save more than a half of a billion dollars in law enforcement, prison and victim costs. But these courts are far from a panacea - it remains to seen whether they can be scaled up to put even a tiny dent in the parade of drug convictions our country sees every day. Nationwide, 70,000 people are in drug courts at any given time, while more than six times that number are in prison for drugs.