Sober Thinking: Drug Treatment Court Combines the Spirit of Theater with Behavior Modification

May 5, 2004

District Court Judge Michael J. Haley‘s drug treatment court is
unlike anything you‘ve ever heard of in America‘s criminal justice
system. Although the court is packed with second-offense drunk drivers
and drug offenders every Wednesday morning, there are few harsh words
or threats of jail. Mostly what you hear is the sound of applause and
friendly encouragement as offenders detail their efforts to kick their
addiction to alcohol and drugs.
Participants even get a pair of theater tickets for completing the
first phase of the program.
At a recent proceeding, a graduate of the court named Brian
described how he decided to drop out of Albion College to go through
the 15-to-24 month program on intensive probation, rather than the
relatively easier route of spending 30 days in jail.
“I was sitting in jail on Christmas Eve, 2002, wondering where my
life was going,“ Brian said of his arrest. He told Judge Haley and
others in the courtroom that although he had been a 3.0 student in
college, he decided that the court program would be a better option for
“working on being a better friend, son and brother.“
“Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this -- I can‘t
believe how quickly it went by,“ he added in a voice choked with
emotion. “I‘ve got a lot more to say, but I‘m not very good at it.“
Brian got an ovation from the crowd, including the judge.

DOUBLE IMPACT
“The whole point of the program is behavior modification through as
much positive reinforcement as possible,“ says Haley, who launched the
innovative new court in Traverse City in 2001. “We‘ve enjoyed seeing
a number of people really put their lives back together.“
Also called “sobriety court,“ the program has been successful enough
to warrant widespread attention in the legal community. This August,
Haley‘s court will host a group of about 80 judges, probation staff and
administrators who will come to Traverse City to observe the program.
His court will serve as a training site for the National Drug Court
Institute, funded by the federal Department of Justice -- “the judicial
equivalent of rock stardom.“
It‘s an apt metaphor because there‘s an element of theater to the
court as participants describe their efforts to get it together to an
audience of their peers, probation staff and the judge.
The court isn‘t all just pats on the back and applause, however.
The program involves intensive drug and alcohol breath testing along
with coerced treatment, close supervision, mandatory Alcoholics
Anonymous (AA) meetings and surprise home visits by by police, among
other measures to steer participants towards sobriety.
Screwing up has serious consequences. “You do see people taken out
of here to jail,“ Haley notes, adding that removal from court includes
handcuffs and all, “for maximum impact.“
“Part of this is courtroom theater,“ he says. “You want people to
see what could happen to them if they don‘t succeed. But you mostly
want people to see the graduations so they‘re inspired and feeling good
about themselves.“
Thus far, the court has graduated 50-60 offenders who were
literally a menace to society behind the wheel before entering the
program. “About 80% or more of the people who enter the program get
through it successfully,“ Haley says. “The other 20% we‘re going to
follow to see how they do.“

MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Haley says the court is satisfying from a personal standpoint
because he feels it‘s making a difference in the lives of offenders as
well as making local highways safer.
“I had been a judge for four years and was frankly wondering if I
was going to go crazy in this job,“ he recalls of his decision to
launch the drug court in 2001. “I was doing the same thing judges have
always done. You get the job for six years and what difference does it
make? Anyone can put on a black robe and put people in jail all day
long.“
Haley began having roundtable discussions with local law enforcement
and probation officers in January, 2001 to discuss the idea of a drug
court modeled after one established by his friend Judge Harvey Hoffman
in Eaton County. “I observed a program on this type of court at a
conference downstate and it just became immediately apparent that this
was a program we needed up here,“ he recalls. “I felt embarrassed that
we didn‘t already have a program here.“
Initially, Haley and his roundtable set about determining what sort
of drug court would serve the needs of Northern Michigan. Typically,
he says, such courts are tailored to the particular problems of a
region. Kansas City has a methamphetamine and a cocaine court.
Kalamazoo has a women-only court for hard drug cases and prostitutes.
Grand Rapids has a cocaine court as well as a Hispanic drug court.
Since drunk driving cases are the biggest addiction problem in
Traverse City, Haley‘s roundtable decided to establish a sobriety-based
court. It soon became apparent, however, that the court would be
swamped by cases, so a decision was made to hear only second-offence
drunk driving (OUIL) cases.

SOCIAL WORK
Currently, there are more than 1,200 drug treatment courts in the
U.S., with about 30 in Michigan underway or being established. Only
about 60 in the country are similar to Judge Haley‘s however, and thus
the study to be held here by court officials this August.
The courts are controversial in the judicial culture. “A lot of
judges think this is just social work and doesn‘t belong,“ Haley notes.
“But I was elected to be a judge and find the best way to protect
society. And if I think that the best way to prevent drug problems and
drunk driving on the highway is by doing a little social work in the
courtroom, then by God, I‘m going to do it. You get to the point where
you realize that we can‘t incarcerate our way out of drug and alcohol
problems.“
Increasingly, skeptical judges are being swayed. Recidivism rates
at Judge Hoffman‘s court in Lansing, for instance, have fallen to
13.5%, compared to 45% under the old jail-as-motivation system.
Haley notes that when he started practicing law in the ‘70s,
sending an offender to drug treatment rather than jail was considered
radical idea. Even treatment groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous
didn‘t want coerced recruits, under the notion that they wouldn‘t be
sufficiently motivated to kick their addiction to booze.
That way of thinking has undergone its own radical transition. “Now
the treatment people actually want people who are extinsically
motivated because they‘ve found that coerced treatment works,“ Haley
says. People who are being coerced to get their lives together tend to
succeed more than, say, alcoholic husbands with so-so attitudes who
attend AA meetings briefly to please their wives.

COERCED TREATMENT
Coerced treatment has an edge to it and an aspect that some critics
might find quasi-legal. It starts with the prosecutor proposing a
treatment option to the alleged offender before he or she has a court
arraignment.
The deal is this: persons facing a second offense drunk driving
charge face anywhere from 30 days to a year behind bars under the
traditional route, but those who choose to plead guilty and go through
drug treatment court skip jail in exchange for undergoing 15-24 months
of intensive probation and therapy. The offender has seven days to
decide.
A plea of guilty is typically followed by Michigan‘s severe license
sanctions and a same-day assessment to see what level of drug or
alcohol treatment the offender requires. Newcomers get acquainted with
case managers, probation officers and drug treatment coordinators in
the 86th District Court, including officers Jenny Voyce and Nancy
Padgett, who provide commentary on an offender‘s progress (or lack
thereof) in sobriety court.
Phase I of the court involves at least 90 days of daily breathalyzer
alcohol testing as well as mandatory attendance of three AA meetings
per week and random urine screenings to detect a variety of drugs. You
must also see a probation officer and attend a Wednesday morning drug
court review hearing every other week and find an approved sponsor
through AA or Narcotics Anonymous to guide your efforts.
Additionally, there are random surprise home visits by probation
officers or police, looking through your refrigerator for booze or
drugs. You have to complete 90 days of sobriety to move on to Phase
II, and are rewarded with applause and theater tickets when you make
the cut.
Phases II through IV continue with random breathalyzer and urine
screening tests along with surprise home visits, but the intensity
eases up as progress is shown. The goal is to complete and maintain a
“Healthy Living Plan“ devised by the court more than a year -- and
sometimes two years -- after entering the program.
Failure to complete the program means going back to jail with the
caveat of having to serve twice as much time as you might have
originally been sentenced.

THE COSTS
If all of the above sounds like a great deal of costly hassle,
consider the alternative of the traditional jail route. “If you
multiply the number of people by the number of days in jail at $35 to
$40 per day, you‘re talking about some serious bread,“ Haley notes.
Then too, consider the cost to society, considering that jail time
hasn‘t been shown to be much of a deterrent to preventing drunken
killers out on the road.
“The traditional approach to drunk driving or most crime is
probation with conditions the first time and a little jail the next
time and a lot of jail the next time,“ Haley says. “Before you know it,
you‘ve got a jail full of thirsty addicts. Before we had the drug
treatment court, people were coming back for sentencing only if we
caught them. As judges, we knew that probation didn‘t work well, so we
had to send people to jail.
“Drug treatment court turned sentencing and probation on its head,“
he adds. “It‘s a a program that‘s really at war with the present
adversarial court system. It‘s a team approach to a serious social
problem.“