Unconventional Courts Help Drug Offenders Recover

A special Mecklenburg County court for drug offenders saves $7 for every dollar it spends and helps prevent repeat offenses, but few people know much about it.

Eyewitness News reporter Jim Bradley was allowed special access into the courtroom and got an inside look at a program judges, prosecutors and criminals said is making Charlotte safer.

The differences between these courtrooms and conventional courtrooms are immediately clear.

In one instance, Judge Theo Nixon applauded a man who was previously arrested for felony cocaine possession.

A year after that arrest, Steve is almost ready to graduate from Mecklenburg County's Drug Treatment Court. He said the program has given him his life back.

“If this program wasn't available, what kind of an impact would that have? I'd be sitting in a jail cell, I'm pretty sure,” he said.

Beneath the clapping and hugging and encouragement is a serious program that's delivering serious results.

“It's a different approach,” Nixon said. “It's a different mentality entirely on how to deal with crime, substance abuse; and it works. It really works.”

Court officials said recidivism -- or repeat offending -- among the hundreds who've gone through the drug court's year-long program is between 11 and 12 percent, compared to 44 percent for those outside the program.

The program worked for Kappi, who said she was addicted to prescription pills for 15 years. This month, with a year of sobriety behind her, she graduated from the program and the case against her was dismissed.

Getting to graduation isn’t easy. It requires regular court sessions, probation meetings and drug treatment, while defense attorneys, prosecutors and case workers evaluate participants’ progress.

Nixon said the community benefits as much or even more than the participants.

“They'd be stealing, they'd be driving impaired, they would be involved in all number of crimes trying to support habits,” Nixon said.

But instead, they're kicking habits.

“I needed this kind of help and I'm very glad to get it,” a participant named Jerry said.

Mecklenburg County provides about a half-million dollars a year to help fund the drug treatment courts. The budget recommendation presented last week by County Manager Harry Jones doesn’t include any cuts in funding, but it's still unclear if the state, which provides more than a $1 million to the program annually, will cut its contribution.

For more information on the program:

The North Carolina Court System

PDF:Charlotte-Mecklenburg Drug Treatment Courts