Drug Court

TRENTON — Democratic lawmakers want to divert some nonviolent offenders into drug treatment rather than prison, a notion Gov. Christie made one of his priorities this year. But two bills winding their way through the Senate and Assembly would use a two-county pilot program to test Christie's belief that forcing people into drug treatment can work. Christie wants to make participation in drug court, a program that keeps drug-addicted offenders out of jail and in treatment, mandatory.

City Councilwoman Joan Specter yesterday proposed that Philadelphia create a "drug court" as a way to gain more convictions in drug cases. But at last one city judge, Municipal Court President Judge Joseph R. Glancey, said it is an old idea that is not worth reviving. The councilwoman said the idea is to put all drug-related court activities in a central location. Implementation of the idea would not add to the cost of court operations because the same judges and court employees would be used, she said.

Calling Philadelphia courts a "revolving door" for drug dealers, a state senator is pushing for a new court to handle only drug cases. The idea is not new, but Sen. Chaka Fattah, D-Philadelphia, says a "drug court" could help get dealers off the streets by cutting court backlogs and drug offenders' rates of repeat crimes. A new court, he says, would add 13 judges to the city's 85 Common Pleas judges, reduce backlogs that now approach 13,000 cases, cut the time - up to a year - it takes to get drug cases into court, and fund drug treatment programs.

A Superior Court judge ruled yesterday that a Chester County woman will remain in Drug Court pending her appeal of the voluntary rehabilitation program's rules. Attorneys for both sides confirmed that a telephone conference with Superior Court Judge Stephen J. McEwen Jr. resulted in his order continuing two stays issued by the appellate court earlier this month. A three-judge panel is expected to hear the appeal by Sheryl Ann Fletcher, but no date has been set. In April, Fletcher sought an alternative to lengthy incarceration by signing up for Drug Court.

Political, civic and law enforcement leaders met yesterday to plan a strategy for seeking federal funds for a city "drug court" and drug treatment facility. The proposed complex, which would cost $26 million a year to run, would combine a court staffed with judges handling only drug cases and a special jail where inmates would serve out sentences while receiving therapy for addiction. The proposal is the work of a 16-member task force, appointed last June by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix Jr. to find solutions for the backlog in the Philadelphia court system.

Montgomery County will create a special drug court in 2006 and help to finance eight new police officers for Norristown, officials announced yesterday as they unveiled next year's $448 million budget. The drug court follows the lead of Philadelphia and Chester County. The approach, expected to cost $400,000 next year, is intended to provide more consistent prosecution and follow-up of addiction-related crime while relieving overcrowding at the county jail. The expenditure won't affect the county's 2006 tax rate, which will remain steady at $2.89 per $1,000 of assessed value - the third time in four years the county has forgone a tax increase.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said yesterday that he was optimistic the federal government would provide "substantial" funding for a special court to try drug-related cases in Philadelphia and for drug treatment for offenders. Specter convened a meeting of federal, state and local law enforcement officials in Center City to plot strategies for obtaining the aid from $8.9 billion that Congress allocated to fight the drug problem across the country. He said he would send a letter to federal drug czar William J. Bennett requesting the funds and would meet with him next month to discuss the program, which he said could be used by other cities if it proved successful in Philadelphia.

State Sen. Chaka Fattah yesterday proposed legislation that would create a 13-judge Philadelphia drug court and a mandatory drug-treatment program to relieve a judicial backlog that has reached nearly 13,000 cases. All he has to do now is find $26 million a year to pay for it. The Democrat from Philadelphia said at a news conference that his bill, to be introduced in a few days in the House and Senate, was an outgrowth of recommendations made last summer by a task force appointed by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix Jr. The legislation would authorize the appointment of 13 additional judges to Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia to create a temporary division to hear drug cases.

A 16-member task force yesterday called on the state Supreme Court and the legislature to create a new 13-judge "drug court" as an emergency response to the surge in felony drug cases clogging the city's criminal courts. Saying that one-third of all court cases filed in 1989 directly involved drugs, the task force appointed in June by Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix Jr. issued preliminary recommendations for a two-part strategy to speed disposition of drug cases: A drug court, to be housed outside City Hall with its own court personnel, sheriff's deputies, assistant district attorneys and public defenders, would be a short-term solution to reducing the backlog of 12,500 criminal cases and would exist for five to 10 years.

No one went before a judge, but the doors of Burlington County's drug court officially opened yesterday. The program, part of a state effort to rehabilitate those charged with nonviolent drug-related offenses through treatment, not jail time, made its debut in the county with the installation of a coordinator. Its first cases will go before Superior Court Judge John A. Almeida, the county's designated drug court judge, on Monday. Burlington County had been one of eight New Jersey counties without the program, which the state launched in 1996 in Camden and Essex Counties.

TRENTON — Democratic lawmakers want to divert some nonviolent offenders into drug treatment rather than prison, a notion Gov. Christie made one of his priorities this year. But two bills winding their way through the Senate and Assembly would use a two-county pilot program to test Christie's belief that forcing people into drug treatment can work. Christie wants to make participation in drug court, a program that keeps drug-addicted offenders out of jail and in treatment, mandatory.

Calling addiction a treatable disease, Gov. Christie said Thursday that he would require treatment for nonviolent criminals with drug dependence, a program that would take at least a year to start. In the meantime, Christie would offer yearlong drug treatment to 1,000 to 1,500 low-level offenders now in prison. "I believe that this will be, if we do it the right way, one of the lasting legacies of this administration," Christie said at a news conference at the Rescue Mission of Trenton.

Calling addiction a treatable disease, Gov. Christie said Thursday that he would mandate treatment for nonviolent criminals with drug dependence, a program that would take at least a year to start. In the meantime, Christie would offer yearlong drug treatment to 1,000 to 1,500 low-level offenders now in prison. "I believe that this will be, if we do it the right way, one of the lasting legacies of this administration," Christie said at a news conference at the Rescue Mission of Trenton.

Gov. Christie smartly recognizes that addiction is still winning the 40-year-old war on drugs, so he is changing up New Jersey's strategy. He wants mandatory treatment for all nonviolent, drug-addicted offenders. He compassionately declared that "everyone deserves a second chance, because no life is disposable. " His plan expands on an executive order he issued last year to centralize drug crime fighting efforts, with the very important use of real-time data to determine the effectiveness of programs.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE said that New Jersey's 15-year-old drug-court program will be expanded as part of a plan to ease inmates' transitions back into society and to get help for addicts who are involved in many crimes. The move came with an admission from the Republican governor. The so-called "War on Drugs," which brought harsh penalties to drug offenders, hasn't worked, he said. "We're missing the best in terms of how we can help these folks turn their lives around," he said.

Gov. Christie said Monday that he wants to divert nonviolent drug offenders from prison and into rehabilitative programs, a move expected to save money and help lower the recidivism rate. During a visit to Camden, the governor signed an executive order to expand the state's drug-court program and to create a task force to centralize the state's prisoner-reentry efforts and determine what barriers exist for inmates upon release. The governor also wants to create a recidivism database that tracks the success of reentry programs.

A 30-year-old West Chester man with a history of drug abuse and assaulting police will spend two to four years behind bars. Chester County Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. imposed the sentence on Ty C. Murray for two incidents in Chester County involving fisticuffs against police officers - offenses that Murray committed previously in both Delaware County and Philadelphia. "I'm glad no one was seriously hurt," Murray said during a brief apology. His attorney, George H. Newman, had argued for a lighter sentence.

Eagles head coach Andy Reid's son Britt was pulled over for several traffic violations Thursday, after years without a run-in with the law. State Police said that Reid, 26, was given traffic citations for speeding, careless driving and tire-equipment violations while driving on a state roadway in Lower Merion Township. A State Police spokeswoman did not know the exact location or time of Reid's traffic stop. Reid can either deal with the citations by paying the appropriate fines or by taking them before a magisterial district judge, the spokeswoman said.