Drug Courts

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The concept and purpose of drug court is to give individuals the opportunity to re-establish their lives while under stricht supervision of the Court and by maintaining sobreity. If you violate the rules, you pay the price. Drug court is an alternative to a prison sentence. The people who are accepted into drug court are extremely lucky to be participating in a program like this because had they not been accepted, they would be somebody's playmate in prison. So, you would think these people would do anything in their power not to violate the rules and in turn be sent to prison. From what I have seen this is not so and it drives me crazy that I pay taxes on such program that only enables its participants to use. I will explain a bit more. From what I have witnessed on a weekly basis ( I used to work for the court systems in the states) drug court is a crock. The participants are REWARDED for being sober. They are rewarded for having a job. They are rewarded for keeping their job. They are rewarded for taking care of their children. They are rewarded for having a license to drive a vehicle. First, being sober is nothing to be rewarded for. Being sober is reward in itself. Its a huge accomplishment but needs no rewards because that is sending the WRONG message. Second, most of us go to work everyday, take care of our children, maintain our license to drive, keep our jobs and go to them every damn day and do we get rewarded?? I don't think so! Instead we end up paying the taxes for these stupid drug courts to function and for the people in them to get an easy ride. Personally, I would rather pay for their prison sentence if they are going to manipulate the systems the way I have seen people do. Its completely ridiculous. What are these rewards teaching these people? I will tell you what they are teaching them. They are being taught that when you do something good, you get rewarded for it. This doesn't help teach them how to maintain a stable life. What happens when the rewards stop coming? Will they fall back into old habits??? I can bet you almost anything that they will. They will start all over in the system, but this time, they will go to prison, therefore we will have spent more money in the long run because the individual has gone thru twice, if not more. I understand the intent behind drug court; the government looks at it as a way to cut back on expenses; afterall, it is expensive to send a person to prison, but why are they being set up to fail? Seems to me like the purpose is severly defeated if the systems keeps along as is. Drug users don't belong in prison by any means, they belong in treatment where they get the help they need and not be enabled by those who are supposed to be helping them. Think about it, if you broke the rules over and over at work, you would get fired. But from what I have seen, if you break the rules in drug court, you keep getting another chance....to screw up. The reason people break the damn rules in the first place is because they know nothing of significance will happen. Seriously, something needs to be changed in this process.