Our hats are off to New Jersey's Supreme Court justices! They have overruled the section of the state's drug court legislation that prevented access to the court by offenders with prior convictions. The decision will mean a significant increase in applicants for the state's drug courts, but it’s being applauded by officials who point to the significant cost benefits †and saved lives †that result when addicted substance abusers complete the court's closely supervised drug rehab programs.



Instead of languishing untreated in state or county jails, drug court participants undergo a court-ordered program of frequent drug testing, court appearances, and a successful drug rehab program, which includes counseling on life skills and living drug-free. Completion of the program results in dismissal of charges and/or reduced or set aside sentences. Most importantly, graduates gain the necessary tools to rebuild their lives.

New Jersey's drug court applicants must still meet the criteria of being non-violent offenders, which is generally the case in the nearly 1,700 drug courts operating in all 50 states, although the structure, scope, and targeted populations for drug courts can vary from one jurisdiction to another. Some states don't even have legislation covering them, relying instead on the courts to intelligently manage the system. Some allow offenders with prior convictions into the system, others do not. But they all share the three main goals of reduced recidivism, reduced (or eliminated) substance abuse among participants, and rehabilitation of participants through a successful drug rehab program to drug- and crime-free lives.

The New Jersey decision may encourage other states to take another look at their no-prior-conviction requirements. Data from surveys across the country show conclusively that offenders who graduate from the court's drug rehab programs overwhelmingly tend to avoid further scrapes with the law, and are far more likely to remain drug and alcohol free. Allowing drug-addicted defendants with previous convictions into drug courts †who otherwise would be headed for jail †will certainly result in greater numbers of applicants, bringing new pressures for expanded court and drug rehab facilities. But a majority of the country’s non-violent crime is drug-related, committed by people addicted to alcohol and drugs. Addicts with prior non-violent drug-related convictions obviously need drug rehab even more than first-timers †that's a no-brainer.

The case that prompted the New Jersey decision was Jason Meyer, married with two kids. Meyer had spent a fifth of his life behind bars by the time he was 25, after more than 15 years of drug and alcohol addiction. Yes, 15 years †he started abusing drugs before he turned 10 years old! Meyer had been arrested for shoplifting and possession of drugs with intent to distribute.

But prosecutors were forced to follow the law and refused Meyer access to drug court because he had three prior convictions †bringing a stolen car into the state, car theft, and receiving stolen property †so he wasn't a candidate for drug court. Instead of drug rehab, jail was his only recourse. This for a guy who was a substance abuser since he was 10 years old.

When a Superior Court judge ordered Meyer to drug court anyway, the state prosecutor appealed. The case reached the high court, and the Supreme Court justice who wrote the decision not only agreed with the first judge's decision, he condemned the law and said that everyone like Meyer should be allowed to get drug rehab.

"It is inconceivable," Justice Barry Albin wrote about the existing drug court law, "that the Legislature granted a trial court power to impose a probationary sentence, but not the power to attach the one condition necessary to address the offender's desperate needs †a drug-rehabilitation program . . . a court should strive to avoid statutory interpretations that lead to absurd or unreasonable results."

And so, hats off to New Jersey! We're not condoning crime just because it was committed by someone with addiction problems †far from it. But we do believe that all offenders of every stripe deserve a shot at rehabilitation. And the extent of addiction's role in so much crime cannot be overlooked any longer. A successful drug rehab program delivered wherever needed is the only sensible and humane approach.