When most offenders finish their time, they usually don?t get an award and a hug from the judge who punished them.
But the six people who completed Howard County?s Drug/DUI Court on Wednesday had a totally different experience.
The four men and two women, who completed a year of sobriety, were celebrated as success stories in a new way of dealing with lawbreakers.
“In traditional court, we don?t, all the time, see the successes,” said Howard County Drug and DUI Court Judge Neil Axel, who hugged many of the program?s participants as they accepted their graduation certificates.
“But with drug court, we see it when we’ve been successful.”
Drug court programs were established nationwide in the late 1980s as a response to drug-related cases and expanding jail and prison populations.
Howard County started its drug court in 2004 and added drunken driving offenders to the program in 2005.
According to a 2004 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, empirical evidence shows drug courts to be successful in lowering the percentages of drug abusers who are re-arrested or re-convicted.
Drug court programs are a system of justice based almost entirely on rehabilitation in hopes of cutting down on repeat offenses.
In Howard County, the number of graduatesfrom the drug court has increased each year since it started. This year?s graduating class is the highest in the court?s history.
In drug court, there are no trials. People charged with a drug- or alcohol-related crime must plead guilty to enter the court. But if they don?t stay sober or miss the counseling meetings they need, they can be forced to complete community service or see jail time, said Bobbie Fine, Howard County?s Drug/DUI Court coordinator.
Howard County Circuit Court Judge Louis Becker was the founding judge of the court in Howard County. At Wednesday’s graduation, several of the graduates and local politicians thanked Becker for his work.
“He was adamant they this was going to happen, whether or not we wanted it,” said Howard County Executive James Robey, who recalled his days as a police officer and said it was “frustrating to see the cycle” of drug addicts committing crimes over and over again.
“This makes sense,” Robey said of the court.
One graduate, who asked not to be named, said police found him during the “lowest part” of his life, drunk on the side of the road.
“We all needed help,” he said of himself and the other graduates. “And we got that help from this program.”
