Denver’s once-promising drug court, shuttered as a cost-saving measure in 2002, deserves another chance.
Created in 1994, the system became a national model for other drug courts because it was able to quickly process low-level drug offenders through the court system and get them into treatment within 72 hours.
Today, they languish up to 90 days in jail before they can get treated.
But with other district courtrooms overwhelmed with offenders, the judges decided three years ago they couldn’t afford the luxury of having one judge reserved solely for drug cases.
Until this country comes to grips with its failed war on drugs, the judicial system will continue to be bogged down as far too many low-level drug offenders clog jails and courtrooms.
Answers, like Denver’s former drug court, are out there – they just need to be funded and supported. That’s why we were pleased to hear that Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey is trying to determine how to resurrect the court and how to pay for it.
The city’s Crime Prevention and Control Commission, a group of city officials, citizens and justice officials, has been studying ways to unclog city jails and is investigating a drug court. The commission has more than $1 million earmarked for programs but hasn’t determined if that’s the direction Denver should head.
Morrissey says the costs likely would involve more than just a judge and staff, but also additions to the DA’s office and public defender’s staff. The state legislature would need to approve the position, and the governor would have to appoint the judge.
We think it would be an important step back in the right direction, and could end up saving Denver, and the state, money in the long run.
Even some of the original detractors are in favor of resurrecting the court, including once-skeptical police officers.
Read what Denver police Sgt. John Spezze, a man who walks the beat, told The Post: “I know what happened before drug court was created, and I saw what happened after it was created. It made a huge difference in the neighborhoods and in the lives of the people who were arrested.”
Morrissey has talked with other DAs about the possibility of doing drug courts statewide, even if they would only operate half-days in some jurisdictions.
It’s an idea worthy of further study. Denver should take that first step, and soon.
