Special Bd. of Aldermen — 02/27/2017 Page 3
These are the folks that the normal means of the criminal justice system hasn’t worked for them. They have
been on probation. They have gone through the system, they have been incarcerated and it is still not
working. The difference between drug court and regular probation is this idea of judicial supervision.
When someone comes into the drug court, they are required to do treatment; they are required to do probation.
The treatment consists not only of drug treatment but also could consist of mental health treatment. We know
a lot of folks who have drug issues also have co-occurring mental health disorders. The drug court seeks to
treat both of those issues in a way that is helpful to each participant. In order to make sure they are being
where they are supposed to be and to make sure they are doing everything they are supposed to do, they
have to meet with the judge once a week. | believe it is still Tuesday afternoons that everyone meets at the
drug court. The sessions are open to the public. Anytime you are interested in seeing how it works on a week-
to-week basis, please stop by at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesdays. You can sit in and see how folks are doing on a
week-to-week basis.
Every week before the drug court session, the judge meets with the entire team and they talk about how folks
are doing, whether they have been compliant with all of their treatment, whether they have stayed cleaned.
They are also randomly drug tested throughout the week. It could be as few as two times, but it could be more
than that. The key is that it is a random drug test so they don’t know when it is coming. All of this is done
through Community Council out on Amherst Street. Every week, the judge will tell them whether they have
been compliant with their treatment or whether they haven’t been compliant. If they are not compliant, they
receive some type of sanction. They could be non-compliant for being late or missing treatment in which case
the sanction is you have to show up early for a treatment for the next week for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, half an
hour. They could be non-compliant because they used drugs throughout the week and they were caught in a
drug test. Even worse, they could have used drugs and lied about it. That is something that gets sanctioned
pretty harshly because one of the things the judge wants to see is that people are being honest with not just
the judge but the whole team. If someone has used, and there’s going to be relapses, but if someone relapses
the team wants to address the underlying causes why they used. Just drug use may not get a harsh sanction.
It may get more of a treatment response in the beginning. The idea is to build trust and let people know that
the drug court team is there to help them but if their drug use continues to be a problem and they are not
honest about it then the judge is there to hold them accountable.
The national studies show that drug court reduces crime by as much as 45 percent more than other
alternatives like probationary or just strict incarceration. Incarcerating someone without giving them the help
that they need is not going to ensure their success once they are released back into the community. Drug
courts also save money as compared to just strict incarceration. Studies show $1.00 invested saves as much
as $3.36 in criminal justice costs alone. When you consider a lot of studies will say that it costs about $30,000
to $35,000 to incarcerate an inmate for a year, you will see that the $8,000 per participant that it costs to treat
people in drug court and supervise them within the community is a great savings to the county and the state
and locally here.
| talked about a lot of these. It’s a multi Multi-disciplinary team approach. The Nashua Police Department has
been very helpful with the Hillsborough County Drug Court. When it first started, Deputy Chief Kernigan was
on the drug court team. Lieutenant Rourke, when he was a lieutenant, was also a very active participant of the
team. Lieutenant Kenney is now on the team that meets once a week. | think that’s been a huge part of
Nashua Drug Court’s success, having not only Nashua police involved but also Hudson Police as well.
Nashua’s police have provided resources to do things like home checks on participants. The POPP unit every
once in a while and randomly on a Thursday show up on someone’s doorstep to see how they are doing. They
have plenty of other work to do so it’s appreciated that they have devoted time to the drug court. It’s a good
way for a lot of participants to interact with police on a different level than they are used to. | think if the
Nashua police were here they would say it is a worthwhile endeavor for them.
