Published: December 03, 2008 08:57 am      

Incoming prosecutor denounces drug court

Keller asserts victims don’t want ‘therapy’ for criminals

Prosecutor-elect Kristen Keller feels the judicial system has an obligation to victims of crime and a heavy workload as it is without trying to serve as “therapists” for convicted drug addicts.

In a rebuttal Tuesday, she opposed the idea of creating a special drug court, an alternative sentencing setup aimed at getting non-violent offenders unhooked and back into society as productive citizens while sparing taxpayers money normally routed to regional jails to pay for their upkeep.

Keller told the Raleigh County Commission that “a unique moment” has come when public defenders and prosecutors are on the same page in their disdain of drug courts, now being tested in Mercer County and one county in the Northern Panhandle.

“There is not a uniform belief that the therapeutic approach to criminal behavior is the appropriate approach or the approach that people who are victimized by criminals would appreciate,” Keller said.

The veteran prosecutor spoke in response to Bill Jesse, director of the new day reporting center in Raleigh County, in touting the idea to the commission.

“Basically,” he said of the proposed drug court, “it’s another method of alternative sentencing that we’ve been lucky enough to get money for in the southern region. It’s a very, very intensive program made for severe drug addicts and alcoholics.”

Keller, however, advised the commission the time needed to run the drug court is an amount “we cannot afford.”

“And I don’t think the answer to criminal behavior is in letting criminals believe, even more so now, that we all exist to be their therapists,” she declared.

Moreover, the incoming prosecutor asked the commission for two things — an official audit of the Mercer County Day Reporting Center, a program encompassing eight counties, including Raleigh, and resumes at the Raleigh facility.

Keller said she wasn’t being critical of the local program but cautioned the commission that eventually the public will ask to see results of background checks, if any, performed on the employees and copies of resumes.

When she requested this, Keller said, the director refused, then referred her to his attorney.

Afterward, commission president Pat Reed said she was confident the resumes could be provided, but pointed out all working at the center had been subjected to checks before employment began.

As for an audit, she said this is routine when any state grant money is involved, and in this matter, the amount approved for Mercer and Raleigh counties combined was $380,000.

“We’re going to take all the information under advisement and make a decision,” she said.

“Our interest in the drug court was to save additional monies in our jail costs. But we have to take everything into consideration.”

Keller suggested that non-violent offenders aren’t always safe, pointing out that a man convicted of murder in the 2006 shooting death of Beckley police Cpl. Chuck Smith had violated the terms of his parole 11 times and was supposed to be on home confinement and in counseling.

“What he was doing in the middle of the night was dealing drugs,” she said.

But Jesse said the program isn’t tailored for non-using peddlers out to rake in huge bucks in street sales, rather for individual users who run afoul of the law while abusing drugs.

“People eligible are people that are basically out in the community committing crimes that they’re feeding their drug habits,” the day reporting center director said.

“They break into people’s houses, stealing electronic equipment and pawning it off to get money for drugs. There could be forgeries and utterings. The ones we take are mostly non-violent offenders.”

Jesse said referrals may be made by a judge, magistrate, defense lawyer, prosecutor, even a law enforcement officer.

“The prosecuting attorney is basically a gatekeeper, the first person that has a say-so as to whether a person gets into drug court,” he said.

Jesse described the system as a triple-phase one, in which the offender, graduating to the final step, sees a judge and a drug test on fewer occasions.

If an offender gets lax and begins to misstep, Jesse said, sanctions can be imposed to correct negative behavior. That can translate into a warning, more community service, more classes, even specific times of jail confinement.

“When they come into drug court, they basically sign their rights away,” he said. “Once in drug court, there is no defense attorney. If the team decides they go to jail, they go to jail.”

Keller suggested that foul-ups can lead to trouble for society and that even burglaries pulled off to swipe pawnable items for drug money are violent offenses.

“The concern when drug addicts mess up is that somebody gets hurt,” she said.

Already, she said, drug trafficking has occurred in the Summers County day center, and there have been multiple cases of felons freeing themselves of electronic monitoring bands.

Given the options that exist for alternative sentencing, Keller said, “you have to work very, very hard to go to jail in Raleigh County. Judges are so cognizant of jail issues you have to violate repeatedly before you end up in jail.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com