Drug Court Program to Curb Jail Overcrowding
MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. – Drug related charges account for the second most arrests in Tennessee second only to homicide. As jails in Tennessee begin deal with overcrowding, the Jackson City Drug Court is trying to lighten the load. For nonviolent drug offenders they have an option, go to jail or go to drug treatment. Judge Blake Anderson says the purpose of the program is to stop people returning to jail. “At the Drug Treatment Program we are trying to stop the revolving door of people going in and out of jail,” he says. One of the people lucky enough to participate in the program is Scott Brewer. He says before the program his life consisted of DUI’s, drug related charges and being in and out of jail. “If the drug treatment court wasn’t available to me I am 100% positive I would have continued on the road I was on, in and out of jail. With it probably getting more serious,” he says. Participants and officials for the drug court say they are passionate about their work because unlike jail the program truly changes how people live their lives. The drug program not only keeps people out of jail but it has since it’s beginning effectively kept people from returning to jail. Nethery says more than 70% of people who go to jail return, where as less than 15% of people who go through a treatment program are ever arrested again. Damien Nethery director of Jackson Drug Court Treatment says the program works because it changes people. “We can positively change by treating these individuals…incarceration is simply punishment,” he believes. Nethery says drug addiction is much like diabetes, it can be treated but it’s always there. “There has been tons of research that has been done..does incarceration help or does it curb those who are addicted from committing crimes? or does treatment?…and every study that I’ve been presented with it’s treatment.” Brewer who successfully completed the program believes jails are filled with people who need help like he received not incarceration. “The people sitting in jails are not criminals they are drug addicts they are doing what they have to do to support their addiction, and that just involves breaking the law. And with this program it gives people the opportunity to begin a new life.” The Drug Court of Jackson has already helped nearly 1,500 participants and hopes to help many more.
