Bill Waller Jr., the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court, talked about a statewide drug rehabilitation program at the Columbus Rotary Club meeting Tuesday.
Waller, who is the son of the late Gov. Bill Waller Sr., said the program is a chance for some non-violent drug offenders to kick drug addiction, provided the offenders plead guilty before a judge. Drug courts — or as Waller called them, “problem-solving courts” — send offenders to the program which requires them to receive addiction treatment and stay sober for three to five years. Enrollees must hold jobs, pay court fines, meet with judges and undergo drug tests, Waller said. Their movements are monitored while in the program, but when they complete it, the felony drug charges are remanded.
“The reality of prison today is probably half of the people in prison are there on some sort of substance-related charge,” Waller said.
Most addicts who get out of prison after serving sentences for non-violent drug charges will be back within three years unless their addiction is treated, according to Waller. The rehabilitation programs help keep offenders out of jail, thus saving taxpayer dollars, he said.
Currently 17 participants are undergoing treatment in the 16th Circuit Drug Court in Lowndes County, Waller said. They have paid more than $8,000 in fines this year.
“Think about that,” Waller said. “If they were in jail, they wouldn’t be paying anything.”
He added that since the state Department of Corrections estimates drug courts save $12,000 for every participant the program keeps out of jail, the 17 participants in Lowndes County save the state $204,000 a year. Collectively, they have spent over 1600 hours with alcohol and drug abuse counselors. Two of the 17 participants, after entering the program, got jobs for the first time in their lives, Waller added.
In addition to the 17 participants in Lowndes County, there are 28 current participants in the program from the Columbus Municipal Drug Court. They have collectively spent 504 hours with alcohol and drug abuse counselors, and 12 who were previously unemployed now have jobs.
During fiscal year 2015, there were 25 graduates of the Columbus Municipal Drug Court program and five graduates of the 16th Circuit Drug Court.
Municipal Judge Marc Amos told The Dispatch on Tuesday that while the program does not have a 100 percent success rate, its benefits outweigh the costs.
“I think that the program has been a huge success from the standpoint of taking people’s lives and helping them make better decisions,” Amos said. “There are failures, but you have to expect that if you’re reaching out and trying to get the right people into the program.”
Waller told The Dispatch after the Rotary Club meeting that the program has worked better than anything else he knows about to help save lives and cut down on recidivism.
“Everybody sitting in here has got a family member that’s had some sort of abuse problem,” Waller said. “It’s touched every family.”
The program began in the mid-1990s, according to Waller. Lowndes County began participating after 2009.
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