Violent Sex Offender Alcoholics Anonymous Member On The Run After AA Meeting
1
Tag Archives: Drug Courts Mandating AA
DRUG COURT GRADUATE ARRESTED AFTER BAR FIGHT 3 DAYS AFTER GRADUATING
NA Member Mathew Nation and Drug Court Graduate, arrested for hitting a woman in the head with a bottle in a bar, 3 days after graduating Drug Court!
His previous arrests were burglary, theft, obstruction of justice,domestic violence and drug charges!
Continue reading
Loudoun County Virginia Drug Court Funding Dropped Because Of High Failure Rate
Loudoun County Virginia Drug Court nixed funding for the program because supervisors opposing the funding said they were concerned the program was not cost effective, serving a maximum of 20 participants at a time and reporting a graduation rate of 24 percent. Close to the nations Capital we are seeing evidence of the high failure rate of Drug Court. As the judge said, it is like boot camp, so many participants fail. Why have a program so strict and hard to comply with that so many people fail in Drug Court? Your average person would have a hard time completing Drug Court, yet they expect people without a drivers licence, a drug addiction and possibly mental health issues, to complete extremely hard requirements. Many pro Drug Court advocates are out there pushing hard for funding to increase Drug Courts and the cousins to them like Veterans Court and Family Court. They give out skewed statistics on their success rate.
Drug Courts also need to stop the forcing of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on them which is unconstitutional, yet judges are doing it anyway.
Budget Update: Drug Court Funding Nixed
Posted on March 9, 2012
by Norman Styer
The Loudoun Board of Supervisors continued its budget mark up Thursday night, with straw votes to restore $756,563 to County Administrator Tim Hemstreet’s recommended FY13 plan. Supervisors last week voted to begin their budget work at a spending level that would result in a 5 percent real estate tax bill decrease for the average homeowner, about $50 million below Hemstreet’s recommendation. That action put in play a list of cuts proposed by Hemstreet that would have to be made unless a majority of supervisors voted to reinstate the funds.
It appears that among the first casualties of that approach is the Loudoun County Drug Court. County Chairman Scott K. York’s (R-At Large) motion to restore $284,408 to continue the 9-year-old program next year failed. Supervisors opposing the funding said they were concerned the program was not cost effective, serving a maximum of 20 participants at a time and reporting a graduation rate of 24 percent.
The program allows select serious drug offenders to enter an intensive rehabilitation program, supervised by Loudoun County Circuit Court judges, as an alternative to trial. Participants are subject to frequent drug testing and are required to have jobs, manage their finances and appear in court weekly over a period of at least one year. Judge Burke F. McCahill described the program as the most intensive form of supervision in the state’s criminal justice system.
Judge Thomas D. Horne, now the most senior Circuit Court judge in Virginia, compared the program with his toughest life experience: U.S. Marine Corps boot camp. “We are not easy. We do not mollycoddle,” Horne said, explaining why so few participants successfully complete the program. However, even those who don’t complete the program often experience important life-changing impacts and stay out of trouble, he said. Both judges noted that the program was geared to address serious repeat offenders likely to make frequent appearance in the jail and in the courthouse. “We are not rehabilitating people, we are habilitating them,” McCahill said.
Supervisor Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn) said the low graduation rate indicated the program was not successful. Supervisor Shaun Williams (R-Broad Run) said it wasn’t a core government service that justified funding. He suggested private support groups—not the court system—should help these type of addicts. “If they want to get sober and have the support structure to do it, they will do it,” Williams said.Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling), a longtime Drug Court opponent, said drug offenders should not be provided an alternative to facing trial and criminal punishment for their violations. York cited a staff analysis that showed the program, even with its limited participation, saved the county money compared with the cost of incarceration. “This is chump change to help individuals become successful,” York said. York’s motion to restore funding failed on a 3-4-2 vote. Supervisor Matt Letourneau (R-Dulles) and Janet Clarke (R-Blue Ridge) supported the motion. Buona, Delgaudio, Williams and Supervisor Ken Reid (R-Leesburg) voted against it. Supervisors Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) and Susanne Volpe (R-Algonkian) were absent from Thursday’s meeting.
A similar program in juvenile court survived the evening.
http://www.leesburg2day.com/news/article_1554b48e-6a01-11e1-9ab4-001871e3ce6c.html
Drug Court Judge Amanda F. Williams Quits over Judicial Misconduct Charges
Drug Court participants can breath a sigh of relief now that mean and cruel Judge Amanda F. Williams has quit over numerous allegations. This shows how Drug Courts abuse their power. She was the wicked witch of the Drug Courts.
She drove Lindsey Dills to attempt suicide in jail.
Linddsey Dills was one of her Drug Court victims. An unbelievable story of abuse.
Very Tough Love article goes into great detail about the living hell she created for Lindsey Dills and other Drug Court participants.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/430/very-tough-love
Judge Amanda Williams quitting before hearing on judicial misconduct charges
January 10, 2012 – 7:51am
Amanda F. Williams is accused of judicial misconduct.
By Terry Dickson
BRUNSWICK – Chief Superior Court Judge Amanda F. Williams, who once sentenced a man to two weeks in jail for challenging a drug test, will leave office Jan. 2 just nine days before a deadline to answer numerous charges of judicial misconduct, including tyrannical behavior.
Williams, 64, advised Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal of her intent to resign after 21 years on the bench.
In return for the Judicial Qualifications Commission dropping charges against her, Williams agreed not seek another judicial office or senior judge status.
That prohibition is immediate and permanent, the consent order says.
By virtue of his seniority, Superior Court Judge E.M. Wilkes III will replace Williams as chief judge of the five-county Brunswick Judicial Circuit.
The charges against Williams included that she lied to investigators, a crime under Georgia law.
If Williams had not resigned, the commission would have conducted a hearing on all 14 counts and could have sought her removal from the bench.
Last week, the commission amended its Nov. 9 complaint in which it accused her of tyrannical behavior, especially in running her drug court, the state’s largest.
Williams had imposed indefinite jail terms on drug court defendants, deprived some of contact with their lawyers and jailed one man 14 days for questioning a positive drug test, which the commission said he had the absolute right to do without fear of reprisal.
The commission also accused her of giving favorable treatment to the family members of friends and those of high social standing by admitting them into drug court although they did not qualify.
snip
The commission complaint also accused Williams of nepotism for allowing family members to practice before her. In one case, Williams warned parties they would be subject to contempt should they fail to pay a $1,000 fee to her daughter, Frances Dyal, within 30 days. Dyal was acting as a court-appointed guardian in the case and in others that were before Williams.
Other charges include:
– Ordering that drug court defendant Lindsey Dills be held in solitary confinement with no mail, phones calls and no visitors except her drug counselor. While Dills was in jail, she attempted suicide.
– Ordering drug court defendants held indefinitely without a hearing.
– Sending defendant Lisa Branch to Bridges of Hope, a remote residential drug treatment center between Waycross and Homerville, with orders Branch have contact with no one but her drug counselor for a year. The commission said Williams’ action deprived Branch of her right to see her lawyer.
– Approving court motions prepared by her husband and daughter without the court record showing any notice of a conflict of interest.
GAO Report States Almost Half Of Drug Courts Do Not Decrease Recidivism
Washington, D.C. – The Government Accountability Office last week released a report, in which it finds that only 18 of 32 drug courts – or just over 50% – showed statistically significant reductions in recidivism among participants. That is, almost half of drug courts do not reduce re-arrest rates of their participants below the rates of people who went through the normal criminal justice process.
“The message here is: enter a drug court at your own risk. The chance that you’ll enter a drug court that might help you avoid getting arrested again is about 50-50, the equivalent of a coin toss,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director in Southern California for the Drug Policy Alliance. “Clearly, the popularity that drug courts enjoy is not supported by the evidence.”
The GAO’s findings echo those of the Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE), the longest and largest ever study of drug courts. Funded by the National Institute of Justice, MADCE recently reported a re-arrest rate for drug court participants that was 10 percentage points below that of the comparison group, but that the difference was not statistically significant. This means that the study effectively found no difference in re-arrest rates between the groups, as the decrease may be the result of chance.
“Drug courts have actually helped to increase, not decrease, the criminal justice entanglement of people who struggle with drugs and have failed to provide quality treatment,” said Daniel Abrahamson, Drug Policy Alliance’s Director of Legal Affairs. “Only sentencing reform and expanded investment in health approaches to drug use will stem the flow of drug arrests and incarceration. The feel-good nature of drug courts hasn’t translated into results. U.S. drug policy must be based not on good intentions, but on robust, reliable research.”
The Drug Policy Alliance this year released Drug Courts are Not the Answer: Toward a Health-Centered Approach to Drug Use, which found that drug courts have not demonstrated cost savings, reduced incarceration, or improved public safety; leave many people worse off for trying; and have actually made the criminal justice system more punitive toward addiction – not less. For example, people who struggle the most with a drug problem are more likely to be kicked out of a drug court and incarcerated. Although relapse is a common and predictable occurrence during treatment, drug courts often punish relapse with jail time.
The GAO’s study is available at: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-53. Results from MADCE are available at: http://www.urban.org/publications/412353.html.
Tony Newman 646-335-5384 or Margaret Dooley-Sammuli 213-291 4190