Some groups claim that drug courts are less effective than community treatment, don't improve public safety, and are not as cost-effective as people think.
But, here is the breakdown of cost, courtesy of The Stranger.
The problem with these critiques: They're totally wrong, in their conclusions and sometimes in their facts, according to drug court advocates here in King County and around the country.
For example, it's easy to calculate the savings to taxpayers from King County's Drug Diversion Court: $11.2 million between 2005 and 2010.
A couple of recent days spent watching proceedings on the ninth floor of the King County Courthouse illustrated other reasons why those involved in our local drug court—judges, administrators, and even the arrested addicts themselves, who essentially trade jail time for treatment—think it's well worth keeping.
One woman who'd recently passed her "sober birthday" approached the bench and expressed gratitude for being kept in check by the drug court's requirements. "I like you guys to be proud when I'm here," she told King County Drug Diversion Court judge Harry J. McCarthy. "Actually doing what you guys tell me to do has made a difference."
Another woman appeared holding her baby, and Judge McCarthy praised her commitment. "You have been consistently drug free for a long time," he said. A picture of her baby was taken for the "Our Kids" wall in the back of the courtroom, filled with smiling babies of recovering addicts. (Most of them are white babies, in case you were wondering.)
Of course, it's not just anecdotes like these that make drug court advocates upset at attacks on the program. It's also the numbers.
A July report by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that statewide, drug courts saved Washington taxpayers $7,651 per participant over that participant's lifetime.
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