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March 21, 2004Sobriety court reflects on successJudge pursues formal analysis of the programByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - Amanda Barnes wouldn't admit she had an alcohol problem, even after her third arrest for drunken driving. "I still had my job, I had good relationships with friends and family, I wasn't behind financially," Barnes, 24, said. During the year and a half she spent in the 86th District Court's "sobriety court," Barnes said she transformed from unwilling to enthusiastic participant. Now a graduate of the program who remains drug- and alcohol-free, Barnes is one of the success stories, but she doesn't know how successful the program is for most people. "I would say overall I think a lot of people do it to stay out of jail," Barnes said. "I've seen quite a lot of people get kicked out." District Court Judge Michael Haley also wants to know how well it's worked. "Right now we don't have a meaningful way to even be accountable," Haley said. "You know, we have a lot of success stories we can point to, and that's great, but it doesn't really tell you anything." Haley said it's time for an evaluation of sobriety court, since it began in late 2001 and some grads have been out for about a year. He's contracted an independent appraiser to mine participants' court files for a statistical analysis. He estimated the cost at about $2,000. Haley said he hopes to learn more about the people who don't make it through the program. He suspects that even though they have failed sobriety court, they are less likely to re-offend than those who never participated. He said people who are kicked out often tell him, on their way to jail, that the program has had an impact on them, a claim of which he initially was skeptical. "Then I hear it so many times from people, they're not really going to get any benefit from it, because they know they're being tossed," he said. The program report is expected to be completed before August, when Haley and the court will host a conference through the National Drug Court Institute for officials from eight or 10 jurisdictions around the country interested in starting their own sobriety courts. Susan Weinstein, chief counsel for the National Drug Court Institute, said it's important for drug courts to maintain success rate statistics, especially if they hope to be eligible for federal funding. She said a study by the National Institute of Justice of 17,000 drug court graduates showed a recidivism rate of 16.4 percent after one year and 27.5 percent after two years. That compares to a recidivism rate of 60 to 80 percent for drug and alcohol defendants who don't take part in a program, she said.
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