Marijuana Policy Project

Tiffany Hunsley battled alcoholism and methamphetamine addiction for more than 20 years. She's been charged with four D.W.I.s, lied and manipulated her way through three outpatient treatment programs and lost her children to foster care.

Her boyfriend, Bill Hall, used methamphetamine for 24 years. He began cooking the drug to sell, but his own addiction soon took over. Police raided their Wabasha County home in July 2004 and charged them with possession and manufacturing of methamphetamine and child neglect. Their two children were placed in foster care. Hunsley's two other children went to live with their father in Olmsted County.

By March 2005, they were convicted. Hall faced more than nine years in prison. Hunsley was looking at more than seven.

But neither spent a day behind bars.

Instead, they were given a second chance at life, cleaned up, got back their kids and are now contributing members of society.

They owe everything, they say, to the Wabasha County Substance Abuse Court.

"I have a new life today," Hunsley said.

"I will be deeply in debt," Hall said. "This program is amazing if you give it a chance."

The Wabasha County Substance Abuse Court is hailed by supporters as a successful reform program beneficial to both its participants and the community at-large. Advocates say it gets addicts the help they need, saves taxpayer dollars by reducing strain on jails and prisons, and transforms would-be criminals into valuable contributors to society.

The why and how of drug courts

Wabasha County Judge Terrence Walters criticizes the criminal justice system for not adequately helping addicts, likening it to Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The drug court eliminates that insanity, Walters said, by doing away with conventional methods of punishment such as prison and probation.

Wabasha County is one of 26 counties in the state that hosts a drug court. Wabasha County's program deals with both alcohol and drugs. Candidates must have committed non-violent crimes directly related to an addiction to alcohol or drugs, said Mary Kelly, the program's coordinator. These people are at a high risk to re-offend but are in great need of help to beat their addictions to stop a pattern of criminal behavior, she said.

"Jail and a fine doesn’t work for the chemically dependent," Kelly said.

Candidates must be willing and enthusiastic about beating their addictions. They are helped along by a team of police officers, lawyers, probation agents, social services, treatment specialists and a judge. The team provides intense support and supervision through "a pat on the back or a kick slightly lower," Walters said.

Since it opened in January 2005, 26 people have reached out to beat their drug or alcohol addictions. Twelve, including Hall and Hunsley, have already graduated from the program, and only one has slipped and committed a drug- or alcohol-related crime, said Karrie Kelly, the program’s co-coordinator and assistant Wabasha County attorney.

Challenge of sobriety

The incentives for completing drug court are clear: a clean criminal record, no prison time, and perhaps most important, a chance to become a productive member of society and get sober. But it’s a lot harder than many enrollees think, Mary Kelly said.

The program lasts between 18 months and three years, depending on how quickly the candidates satisfy several long-term goals and follow strict rules. Participants must find full-time work and eventually stable housing. They must attend support group meetings, like Alcoholics Anonymous, at least three times a week while attending drug court sessions once a week for four months. The court sessions eventually stretch to once a month. A strict curfew is in effect as well, beginning at 9 p.m. for the first four months in the program. It gets progressively later as candidates progress.

The biggest goal and the most strictly enforced rule is staying clean. Participants undergo random, rigorous drug testing. Most are tested several times a week — and up to twice a day — as opposed to once a month or once every six months, as is often the case with traditional probation, Karrie Kelly said.

Since January 2005, the drug court has conducted more than 1,500 urinalysis tests, more than 1,000 breath tests and about 175 saliva tests. The court spends nearly $1,000 on testing per participant.

Breaking any of the rules, especially the testing rule, results in sanctions agreed upon by the support team.

Penalties include spending up to a week in jail, earlier curfew hours, extra community service, observing court for a day, or attending 90 support meetings in 90 days.

Hunsley said she once missed a phone call to her probation agent and was forced to come in after hours and clean the courtroom.

"The little things matter," she said.

Impact and a struggle

Drug court participants aren’t the only benefactors of the program, advocates say. Social services, state prisons, taxpayers and the community as a whole reap the benefits as well.

Besides busting and eventually helping addicts who commit alcohol- and drug-related offenses, the drug court saves state and county tax dollars.

Of the 26 offenders in the Wabasha County program, 10 faced a combined sentence of nearly 60 years in prison, Karrie Kelly said. That time behind bars would have cost state taxpayers $1,855,455.

By comparison, the entire court operates on a yearly budget of about $70,000.

But it’s not all dollars and cents. The community wins from required community service projects each candidate must perform before graduating, the county says. Hall and Hunsley travel around the state, speaking to schools and other groups, telling their stories as a way to prevent drug use. Current participants have organized events and fundraisers in the community, including a spaghetti feed and softball games. The proceeds collected go straight to the drug court, where funding has been identified as the biggest hurdle to keeping the successful program around.

State grants covering start-up costs for drug courts used to be available and are how Wabasha County got started, Mary Kelly said. But a current state budget crisis has frozen start-up money for new programs. New courts could have to follow the Dodge County Substance Abuse Court’s example; it’s completely county-funded, without the state’s help.

Wabasha County may have to go that route soon, as the state reduces money available to pay personnel salaries, Mary Kelly said. The court recoups some costs through a $500 participation fee, but even that is discounted to $200 by the time the offenders graduate.

Murky future

Despite the financial uncertainty, champions of the drug court want to keep it going. Wabasha County is relying on fundraisers and word-of-mouth about the court’s successes to combat dwindling resources.

"This is a program that has changed lives," Karrie Kelly said. "We want to be able to keep the program running."

Hall and Hunsley are Wabasha’s poster children. Both have been sober since their arrests nearly four years ago.

Hall is working full time in construction and said he now has "all the time in the world" for his children.

Hunsley is working full-time and recently earned a degree in social work with a 4.0 G.P.A., despite being unable to "pass a class" in high school, she said. She currently speaks at schools and offers support and advice for other parents who have lost their kids to foster care as a result of their addictions.

Drug courts have been criticized by some, saying addicted criminals are just like any other criminal and deserve to be thrown behind bars. But Hunsley said those people don't understand addiction is an illness in people's minds that requires something like a drug court to make them realize the scope of addiction.

"This disease I have is still here today," she said. "I have to deal with it daily."

Hunsley credited the drug court for showing her how to face it head on.

"My life today is full," she said.