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Plead first, get drug court later · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Plead first, get drug court. Later written by Tom Collins.
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  Speaker 1: This article is being read by an automated voice brought
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  Speaker 1: to you by Everlett. It's not that drug court wasn't working.
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  Speaker 1: Lasal County has produced notable success stories, but the number
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  Speaker 1: of people flunking out or simply not trying had gotten
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  Speaker 1: too high. For Joe Navarro, the LaSalle County States Attorney,
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  Speaker 1: is doing something about it. Navarro huddled with his staff
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  Speaker 1: and came up with two broad solutions. First, the drug
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  Speaker 1: court candidates need to be screened more carefully. Everyone agreed
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  Speaker 1: to a series of little tweaks to sift the felony
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  Speaker 1: case load for candidates more likely to succeed. Second, Navarro
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  Speaker 1: authorized a big change. In the past, plea negotiations were
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  Speaker 1: put on hold until a candidate had passed or failed
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  Speaker 1: drug court. Now it's the other way around. A defendant
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  Speaker 1: will take a plea and get a setons and then
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  Speaker 1: be admitted to drug court. For example, a first time
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  Speaker 1: suspect caught with possessing cocaine in an amount that indicates
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  Speaker 1: personal use rather than distribution might be eligible for drug court.
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  Speaker 1: Before getting in, however, the defendant must plead guilty and
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  Speaker 1: accept a prison sentence. Only then would he enter drug
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  Speaker 1: court and work his way out from under the prison time.
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  Speaker 1: I was hopeful that drug court was going to be
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  Speaker 1: successful and for these people to change their lives and
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  Speaker 1: obviously to stop using drugs, Navarro said, But that hasn't
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  Speaker 1: always been the case, and part of it, I agree,
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  Speaker 1: was due to the screening process and a lack of
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  Speaker 1: the big hammer over their heads. Now it's going to
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  Speaker 1: be an immediate yanking up and going to prison if
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  Speaker 1: you reoffend. The numbers in question require elaboration. LaSalle County
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  Speaker 1: was graduating between fifty percent and sixty percent of its
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  Speaker 1: candidates in recent years. Jason Good, first assistant LaSalle County
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  Speaker 1: State's attorney, said that percentages pretty good. No drug court
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  Speaker 1: has a one hundred percent success rate. Defendants typically arrive
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  Speaker 1: in advanced stages of addiction and success needs to be
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  Speaker 1: graded on a curve. But graduation rates aren't the only
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  Speaker 1: metric for success, and by other measures, supervisors were growing
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  Speaker 1: increasingly concerned. Our graduates have also reoffended at over a
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  Speaker 1: fifty percent rate, and the people who have failed have
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  Speaker 1: reoffended at a near one hundred percent rate, Good said,
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  Speaker 1: And we've had at least two overdose deaths of people
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  Speaker 1: after they left the program. Good said. One reason for
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  Speaker 1: relapses in recidivism was a problematic vetting system. Turnover throughout
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  Speaker 1: the criminal justice system meant there weren't enough experienced eyes
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  Speaker 1: to review individual cases and to identify good candidates. That matters,
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  Speaker 1: because motivated candidates are more likely to succeed. Then there
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  Speaker 1: was outside pressure to participate, Good said, Drug court applicants
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  Speaker 1: are often pushed by family members and even some atturn
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  Speaker 1: needs into participating when they have little or no desire
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  Speaker 1: to get clean. And what we found is maybe some
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  Speaker 1: people were rushed through to graduate drug court when they
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  Speaker 1: weren't ready, Good said, and somehow they maybe gained the
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  Speaker 1: system a little bit. We found that a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people who ultimately were graduated from drug court have become
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  Speaker 1: repeat offenders. The changes were implemented July first, following a
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  Speaker 1: change in judicial assignments. Circuit Judge Michelle A. Vesconi has
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  Speaker 1: taken over drug court from retired Judge Michael C. Jance.
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  Speaker 1: Staff agreed that the transition to a new jurist presented
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  Speaker 1: a prime opportunity to change the rules and increase the
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  Speaker 1: stakes for the defendants. Vescagni said she supports the drug
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  Speaker 1: program it provides intensive supervision to participants charged with a
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  Speaker 1: felony as a direct result of addiction, but she also
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  Speaker 1: wanted to take a more aggressive approach to successfully help
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  Speaker 1: offenders become free of drugs and alcohol. The team and
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  Speaker 1: I are more than willing to provide the resources necessary
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  Speaker 1: to reach that goal, as long as participants are willing
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  Speaker 1: to accept those resources and do their part in achieving
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  Speaker 1: that goal, she said. Good agreed the resources will be
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  Speaker 1: there for anyone who wants to get clean, but the
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  Speaker 1: stakes are now higher. In essence, they will be taking
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  Speaker 1: a prison sentence on this crime with a drug court recommendation.
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  Speaker 1: Good said, if they wash out or if they have problems,
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  Speaker 1: that sentence will then be executed. It'll already be in place.