Carbon County looks to start drug court

On the heels of introducing veterans court a year-and-a-half ago, Carbon County is trying to land startup money to address high-risk drug offenders.

County commissioners on Thursday approved the submission of a grant application for $446,388.34 under the U.S. Department of Justice “Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program” to implement a drug court in Carbon County.

“There is no disputing we need this court, but we’ve been looking at a way to pay for it,” said Rick Parsons, Carbon’s chief adult probation officer. “We’ve been working with the commissioners for over a year trying to identify the right funding source.”

Parsons called the grant Carbon is seeking “highly competitive,” but said, if successful, it could be a catalyst in helping to address the drug epidemic.

Funding, commissioners said, is for up to $500,000 for four years with a 25 percent county match.

“We would be targeting high-risk individuals who are in danger of recidivism,” Parsons said. “There are people who are struggling, who really do need treatment, and statistics show us these specialty courts are working.”

According to the grant application, drug arrests in Carbon County have increased 199 percent, from 145 to 434, between 2012 and 2017. That compares to the statewide average drug arrest increase of 24 percent.

“It’s very alarming,” said Commissioner William O’Gurek. “We often say we’re a sixth class county with second or third class problems when it comes to crime. The massive amount of drug arrests impact our courts, filing offices, jails, magistrates and even our commissioners office. As a county we’re making a commitment of almost $150,000 if this grant is successful to trying to help solve this problem.”

The money would go in part to adding an additional probation officer and support services for those individuals who need treatment.

May was National Drug Court month as recognized by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. There are more than 3,000 treatment courts in the United States annually serving 150,000 people. According to NADCP, since 1989, treatment courts have saved more than 1.5 million lives and billions of tax dollars.

Schuylkill County launched its drug treatment court in January 2017 and currently has 32 people in its program.

In addition to Schuylkill, there are 33 other drug treatment courts in Pennsylvania.

They are Allegheny, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Butler, Centre, Chester, Columbia/Montour, Delaware, Erie, Fayette, Franklin, Indiana, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lawrence, Luzerne, Lycoming, Montgomery, Northampton, Northumberland, Philadelphia, Potter, Snyder/Union, Somerset, Tioga, Venango, Warren, Washington, Westmoreland and York.

Commissioner Chairman Wayne Nothstein said he’s hoping the early success of its veterans court can parlay into similar results with a drug court.

“We’re going to have our first veterans court graduation coming up in December,” Nothstein said. “We have three, possibly four, people looking to complete that two-year program by the end of this year. It will take a few years to get a good handle on it, but the success rate is looking good at this time.”

According to Parsons, around 35 participants would be in the drug court program at any one time.

“Carbon County is just like the rest of the country as far as being impacted by the drug epidemic,” he said. “We hope this funding mechanism can get us up and running.”