(Advertisement)

HOW WE SEE IT: Unringing The Bell On Drug Court

Posted: August 18, 2011 at 3:31 a.m.

Six years went by with Washington-Madison County Drug Court proceedings being recorded and played on television.

This story is only available from the archives. Click here to contact the online desk.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 08/18/2011

(Advertisement)



« Previous Story

COMMENTARY: So Then I Said In Reply...

Reader response has been of a high quantity and worthy quality lately. That provides an excellent opportunity for one of those columns in which I offer composite forms of p... Read »

Next Story »

Archetype rides again

Now that he’s declared his candidacy, odds are Republicans will nominate Texas Gov. Rick Perry for president. They won’t be able to help themselves. If Hollywood put out a ... Read »

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.

.
>>Remarkably successful as it was, many people failed the drug court program.<,
.
The truth is you, dear editor, have no idea of how successful drug court has been and neither does anyone else. There are NO studies, no evidence.
.
There is, in fact, one bit of record that disputes most of your claim of no injustices occurred. Well make that two pieces of facts.
.
One involves the recent Supreme Court ruling saying it's not allowed. It's a violation of rights to keep visual recorded evidence that could later damage a defendant's life. Plus, we now learn that those video recordings are in the hands of private users, without license and without due authority.
.
That was a danger, a tipping point that was reached when one wanna-be-starlet confined in judicial robes partnered with an ex starlet at Jones TV to make TV history in Ark and violate judicial cannons in the process.
.
Two: at least one defendant had her rights trampled on by the wanna-be-trapped-in-judicial robes:
.
"FROM A TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS DEC. 21, 2009 CASE OF STATE vs. SHARINA WATKINS"
is available at the following link:
.
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/...
.
You, dear editor could have read the transcript at any time provided you had the least interest in judicial ethics. You obviously don't.
.
And once again NO ONE KNOWS if drug court is successful because there are no independent studies, no summaries, no follow-ups on defendants turnaround rates or success rates.
.
What this entire episode distills to is that one ex-local-TV starlet partnered with a trapped-in-judicial-robes wanna-be and pulled the wool over a lot of eyes starting with what should be a watchful local media.
.

Posted by: cdawg

August 18, 2011 at 3:17 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

As soon as I heard that the Drug Court wanted to go live, I lost a lot of respect for it. "Wannabe starlet"...that's funny! I had thought the same thing at the time. What's with the judges in NW AR? We've got another one of the male persuasion who can't bring himself to end a grudge match with a female public defender so he recuses himself from any case she represents. Ego, ego...pride goeth before a fall, they say. I expect more from our judicial system, but these days, it seems that too many who are in a position of authority or public services seems to be clueless about "morals" or "ethics" or even just "how to be a grown-up."

I'd like to see the long-term data on the success of the drug court, myself. Why has no one kept any records of it? I'm not saying it's not been helpful to some, but I know that it has not been helpful to everyone. How does it compare to other approaches? We need to know that because we want to be able to replicate success...and try something else if what we're doing isn't working.

Posted by: SPA

August 18, 2011 at 4:32 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

I believe in the program, and I believe it should be televised.

I don't see how calculating the stats should be a big deal but I can't claim to be familiar with who keeps them either. I mean, people are admitted to drug court only on transfer order from the regular criminal court where they have a felony pending. Then they either succeed/graduate, or they fail (which generally involves a prison sentence). There certainly shouldn't be anything secret about that (and I hate anything secret in government).

Posted by: JayTee

August 18, 2011 at 8:59 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Registration is required to make comments. Click here to LOGIN.
You can register for FREE to post comments and receive alerts.