Expand drug court to juveniles

Baker County’s Journeys Recovery Court program has helped a dozen adults defeat their drug or alcohol addictions during the past four years.

But addiction is an affliction that’s not limited to adults.

Which is why we support Circuit Court Judge Greg Baxter’s campaign to start a similar “drug court” for juveniles.

New Directions Northwest contributed a $5,000 grant from the Oregon Community Foundation for the new program.

Baxter admits that he was at first skeptical of the drug court concept. The judge, like many people, wondered whether the program gave criminals an avenue to avoid punishment.

Baxter soon learned that drug court isn’t like that at all.

First, the people who enroll in the program must first plead guilty to a crime.

Then, before sentencing, they have to tell Baxter they’re interested in drug court.

People who have been convicted of selling or making drugs are not eligible for drug court, nor are people convicted of a violent crime.

Drug court is a one-chance deal, too — people who fail to finish the program are not invited to try again.

The program does spare participants a stint in jail or prison — but only if they follow the program’s stringent rules.

They must, for instance, attend addiction treatment for at least seven hours per week for the first month.

Drug court members must also pay fees of $1,800, have a job, do 40 hours of community service and stay sober.

That last requirement, of course, is by far the most important.

The ultimate goal of drug court is, as it should be, to prevent people from continuing to hurt themselves, and others.

If we can achieve that goal and not saddle taxpayers with the bill for prison or jail, then we should do so.

And Baker County’s Journeys Recovery Court shows that we can.

“We have seen miracles in the lives of our drug court graduates,” Judge Baxter says as part of the statement he reads to each new drug court participant.

Juveniles who are plagued by addiction deserve that same chance.