Putting fewer people in prison for drug possession is a national trend many people think is a sound idea for economic and humanitarian reasons. Locally, we have firsthand evidence that treatment and support offered through drug courts often help offenders succeed more than imprisonment does.

Of course, drug courts don’t work for everyone; there is a 36 percent dropout rate in the program that serves Blue Earth, Brown and Watonwan counties. On the other hand, there is a 64 percent graduation rate.

Since starting in 2005, the area drug court has had 147 graduates, who are people with multiple offenses for nonviolent crimes. At the end of the program they’re expected to be clean, earn a GED or high school diploma and find a steady job and housing.

Besides benefiting the individuals and their loved ones, drug courts benefit society. Those who graduate go on to recommit crimes at an 8 percent rate, which is a rate far lower than even the low end of recidivism rates reported elsewhere.

The drug court’s success can be attributed to the team approach it uses to help its participants. The support network is made up of judges, attorneys, probation officers, law enforcement, counselors and others. They are people who have the skills and resources to help.

Yet more than that, clearly these teams are made up of people who care enough to go the extra mile. Graduate Nikki Lewis recounts in a recent Free Press story how her probation agent, Kevin Mettler, drove her to her job every day because she didn’t have a driver’s license.

And they don’t stop offering help just because you graduate from the program, Lewis said. “One of the things Kevin told me is ‘We’ll always be here,’ and they still are.”

Lewis is just one success story, but it’s a noteworthy one. She has been sober 11 years and earned two college degrees and is now offering the help she once received as a drug court counselor.

— Mankato Free Press, July 3