News
Hundreds Pay Respects to King

Three Trails in 30 Years

Around the Area

Briefs

Range of Projects Displayed at Expo

Estancia Teen Gets Worldwide Education

CNM To Offer Courses in Edgewood

DWI Memorial Needs Help To Stay Open

Bidding Process To Start on Arts Center

Mother of 5 Arrested in Fatal Stabbing

More
News

HOME	CLASSIFIEDS	OBITUARIES	SPORTS	OPINION

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Torrance Drug Court Gets Funds

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
    Torrance County received state funding for a drug court program July 1.
    The state Supreme Court mandated in 2003 that every county implement a drug court by 2011.
    A drug court is designed to reduce recidivism and substance abuse while also increasing the offender's likelihood of successful rehabilitation, according to the New Mexico Association of Drug Court Professionals Web site.
    "Basically drug court acts as a very intensive supervision program for someone who has gone through the District Court criminal process," 7th Judicial District Judge Kevin R. Sweazea said.
    Drug court involves frequent urinalysis testing, counseling, education and getting a job.
    "If they have a slip-up and have a dirty urinalysis, there is an immediate consequence...," Sweazea said. Consequences can include jail time.
    "I am optimistic that drug court will well-serve the interests of the county by helping individuals who have legal problems and also have drug problems," Sweazea said.
    Typically, he said, drug addictions create other problems in an individual's life, like domestic violence, which causes them to become involved, often frequently, with the court system.
    Since the implementation of the first drug court in Florida in 1989, there are now more than 1,600 drug courts nationwide, with 28 operating in New Mexico.
    According to the NMADCP, roughly two-thirds of all people arrested nationally test positive for at least one of the following: cocaine, opiates, marijuana, methamphetamine and PCP.
    In a 2003 national study of 17,000 drug court graduates, only 16.4 percent had been rearrested and charged with a felony within one year of graduation.
    "There is a new philosophy coming through the courts," Sweazea said. "They're trying to adopt a more problem-solving rather than a simple punishment approach."