With about seven months until the first court date, Grays Harbor County is continuing to seek funds and prepare for a new drug court system.

If all goes to plan, drug court would have its first court date in October (possibly the week of October 2). The county could begin identifying eligible offenders in September, Superior Court Judge Stephen Brown said recently.

“Drug court is one of a number of courts based off a therapeutic court model, and that therapeutic court model basically identifies persons who have high needs and that there are programs in existence that have demonstrated on a scientifically validated basis that those programs are effective in reducing the risk to the community with these persons,” Brown said. “Those programs are evaluated on a regular basis to make sure they are getting the outcomes that are expected.”

While the current court system relies on charges and prosecution based on an offender score to curtail drug use, it’s not always successful because drug offenders need a different system, Brown explained. Drug court will use a system of sanctions and incentives with drug offenders. That system will be clearly defined, and offenders will need to agree to participate in drug court.

“Some people are able to turn it around, but we’re trying to intervene with the people who go through the process but keep coming back because of their addiction and they’re not being able to address the problem,” Brown said. “We’re talking about offenders who may be high risk to re-offend with another drug-related offense, but they also have high needs. That means they have issues and problems, including drug addiction, that can be addressed with appropriate evidence-based programs.”

Drug court will feature more frequent court appearances for offenders — some as many as every other week — as well as “intense” supervision, Brown said. While drug court will have random urine analysis about two to three times per week, it also will seek treatment services for addiction for the offenders. A case manager will be assigned to identify other needs. There also are random home visits.

If an offender commits another crime unrelated to the original charge that landed them in drug court, they likely will be dismissed from the program. Failing a drug test, however, will not result in dismissal.

“A person may relapse without essentially committing a crime, and a relapse is an expected part of recovery. They will be addressed and there will be a sanction for that and the sanctions will increase based on how many times a particular violation occurs,” Brown said.

Offenders could be in the program for up to 24 months. With grant funding, drug court could service as many as 70 offenders at any one time. Without grant funding, the county will look to service 25 offenders or fewer. Local funding for drug court comes from the one-tenth of 1 percent mental health treatment sales tax.

And while drug court is estimated to cost more than $2 million to get going, it’s worthwhile, Brown noted.

“The idea is to take persons who without this type of intervention there is a high risk,” Brown said. “We want to intervene and reduce that risk substantially and that’s a benefit to the community. Ultimately, we’d like to get these persons back and integrated into the community in a stable situation to where they’re people you want to have in the community, not the ones you want to exclude by jail and prison.”

Brown cited a 2003 study that showed drug court resulted in a 13 percent reduction in recidivism. Because a reduction in repeat offenders means less repeat strain on the justice system, drug courts also were cited as generating $1.74 for every $1 spent.

“On the front end of the drug court program, it costs more money,” Brown said. “It’s important that we evaluate what we do and we evaluate our outcomes so the money we’re spending on this program is returned back to the community by the reduction of crime.”

Currently, it’s not known where drug court will be held. Some possible locations are at the juvenile detention center or at the courthouse in Montesano. If a third Superior Court courtroom is built at the Montesano courthouse, that could potentially house drug court.

Last month, the Grays Harbor County commissioners approved a request for drug court to submit an application for grant funding through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. If approved, the grant would fund nearly $400,000 for drug court.