County's new drug, DUI court takes flight

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

by Brian S. Orban

Over the past month, the Elmore County Courthouse continues to see progress in a new speciality court that fosters addiction treatment versus punishment for repeat offenders.

The county's drug and DUI court held its first meeting Oct. 5 with four participants and seven people currently enrolled.

"The Elmore County Drug and DUI Court team expects to be near or at full capacity of 15 (participants) by the beginning of the year," said Judge George Hicks, who heads the initiative here.

"Speciality courts are designed to provide more intensive treatment and supervision of individuals who find themselves on the wrong side of the law because of some kind of addiction or mental health issue," he said.

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So let me see if this simple mind can grasp this concept. The REPEAT offenders now are allowed to enroll in more inensive treatment and supervision. How about they are put to work in improving the community by helping to clean up some the weeds and trash in the area? I like what Sheriff Joe in AZ does, put them in pink and put them to work cleaning up along the roads.

-- Posted by B Mullen on Wed, Nov 10, 2010, at 8:20 PM
elmore county at their finest. Putting the repeat offenders in programs that won't help, instead of jail. Of course the offenders want the treatment....it means no jail for them. They can sit at home and not show up to the progams and get warrents for their arrest, and stay hidden for a while. Just think...its your money going into helping these offenders and their "programs", me personally I want my money to go into locking these guys up.

-- Posted by county_aware on Thu, Nov 11, 2010, at 12:32 PM
I think that this is a great step forward for Mountain Home. I think any negative talk is our of order until we have time to see if this is as sucessful as I think it will be.

Of course, there are many that can only say negative things. So let the negative blogs begin.

-- Posted by yniashi on Fri, Nov 12, 2010, at 10:21 AM
To county_aware: acountability is one of the main focus of the program, so no one will be "sitting at home, not showing up or staying hidden."

Also, they are paying a $100.00 entry fee and $25.00 a week to be in the prorgram.

Don't "just think....." before commenting. Research.

-- Posted by idpotatoes83647 on Thu, Nov 18, 2010, at 1:50 PM

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