001[Music] welcome to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson meet the court has brought two as a public service by the Superior Court of New Jersey in Atlantic and Cape May counties as well as the Cape May Institute of Technology to better inform you the public on the workings of the court and the role of the judiciary in our communities today's topic adult drug court what is it who does it serve and what are the community benefits of this diversionary program our guest today the Honorable Mark Sanson presiding judge of the Chancery part and drug court and John bond court services supervisor in the Atlantic County Probation Office overseeing adult drug court program welcome gentlemen Thank You July but before we begin can you tell us a little bit about yourself judge we'll start
002with you very good yeah my name is Mark Sanson I'm a native of Atlantic City I've lived in South Jersey Atlantic Cape May County my entire life I practiced law for approximately 30 years before becoming a judge since I became a judge I've been a judge for about 11 years I practiced the Family Division the Criminal Division and I took over the drug court in Cape May and Atlantic County's about a year ago okay and there we are thank you John please tell us about your background thanks Gerard I actually started with a dude Ishi area in 2001 as a probation officer and I took over the mental health caseload at that point time in 2007 I came on board as the drug court supervisor you know prior to 2001 I was a youth worker
003foster own coordinator drug and alcohol assessment work are all sorts of different things within the Human Services field I've been in the area for approximately 21 years at this point in time okay well now that we know a little bit more about you let's turn to our topic judge the first question is for you what is the philosophy of drug court addiction is a disease we understand a lot about the science of addiction at this point in time and what we try and do in drug court is to match the science of addiction and the proven nature of the disease of addiction with recovery abstinence being clean and sober for a period of time does not equal recovery the theory of drug court is that to deal with some of the the psychological the behavioral
004aspects of addiction the only real real answer is treatment treatment really is two things one an understanding of your disease and two the adoption of a sober lifestyle with sober friends and and being part of a sober support network through your AAA NA meetings and the sober lifestyle until we found out until someone can adopt a sober lifestyle abstinence alone from drugs or alcohol is not enough to lead to a long-term recovery and I think that in a few words is the reef is the is the philosophy behind modern drug court in New Jersey okay so how does the drug court process differ from traditional criminal court cases the other courts in Mays Landing and in Cape May courthouse in the criminal division are based upon a principle of crime and punishment if you commit
005a crime we're going to assess whether you either admit to the commission of the crime you're found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury and then the judges function is to conduct the trial and then to determine what the reasonable and fair punishment is for that crime drug court is a treatment court we don't deal with the crime and punishment model we understand addiction as a disease and we don't punish people for having a disease that's an archaic concept realize now as such by our courts by the judiciary so what we do is we take people into drug court and we provide treatment not punishment treatment itself is a continuum based on need not based on guilt not based on whether you're bad or good most of the people in drug court are very
006good people who have a disease so we try to we try to meet on a very scientific basis the degree of addiction and the type of addiction with the appropriate treatment and the advantage we have in drug court is we have the resources to pay for that treatment in many cases people have these addictions don't have access to two doctors or two treatment facilities because they don't have the appropriate insurance in there they don't have the money to do it drug court does provide the resources to provide access to first-class treatment so what role does the drug court judge play in drug court trial court judge I think more than anything else in John can comment on this because he's also in drug court with the probation department which is another integral part of our
007operation but I'm the I mean I guess the the traffic cop at the at the foot of drug court you have to come in you have to convince me that you're serious about wanting to recover and that you have a capacity to recover we perform a task evaluation therapeutic assessment services for the court is called a task evaluation we answer two questions before they come in one are they clinically dependent upon drugs or alcohol and two what is the level of treatment it's my job to to take them in the drug drug court and to make sure that the type of treatment that they're matched with is appropriate for their level of addiction and it is extremely successful it is successful in an area where there's very little success outside of long term follow-up the
008key to the key to drug court is we have the ability to follow up on on a defendant because these are criminal defendants who are accused of committed an indictable offense we have the ability to follow them up up to five years but there have been some very exciting movements in terms of our drug court manual that reduces that to two and a half years of follow-up and that has been a very successful development and that's really the story that John and I are here to tell is how drug court is changing to meet the needs of more of our citizens in New Jersey for this terrible epidemic that we see going on around us you talk about the terrible epidemic that we see around us that includes the opioid epidemic and issues of that
009nature I do know that nationally drug court has models have been really expanded so can we talk about briefly how the drug court is funded we funded by through the judiciary of the state of New Jersey we also have access to other types of state and federal grants all of that serve as a conduit to go out to helping addicts in our community the truly exciting thing about landing in Cape May County which is one judicial group called vicinage is that we've expanded our drug court in just the last year from about 350 to almost 750 people in Atlantic in Cape May counties we have probably the largest drug court in the state of New Jersey which means that we can affect more people's lives we can get more people in the long term recoveries
010that combined with our new drug court process which shortens the length of probation to potentially two and a half years from five years we can move more people on a continuous basis basis through drug court and therefore get more people into long-lasting recoveries this is meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson will be back with judge Samson and John bond after this message [Music] hello my name is Tom Hegarty I'm a sergeant at the Kami County Sheriff's Office and some of the things you should know when you enter any of our courthouses is once you come in they're going to be screened by an officer at the front desk so what you should not have on you is any weapons tools anything that want to slow down that process you're going to come in
011put all your metal objects up on the counter step through the metal detector listening to the officers direction once you step through don't let you know whether you can continue on or whether you should stop if he stops you you may have to be wanted with a wand detect anything else you may have on you that that's not picking on sir so to speed your your trip along this help come in because there may be lines when you come in and there may be delays so you want to get here early and you also less mob checks on you that will impede your progress welcome to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson my guests today are judge marks Anson and John bond and we're discussing adult drug court and its overall benefits to
012the community so John how does adult drug court probation differ from regular probation there's quite a quite a bit difference between the two on an adult regular probation caseload you might see your officer for maybe once a month you may be tested once every three months depending on whether it's been ordered by the court or not so there's not really that much of a relationships that has developed at that by that officer with the client and again depending on what their list the risk level is it could it be coming coming in even less than that now on a drug court supervision it's a completely different ballgame the the probation officers kind of parts a social worker part law enforcement and part sounding-board so they see their people at least twice a week they're seen
013where they see the judge on a Tuesday but they're also on the community seem and if they're in their jobs at their homes in the field every time that you see that person they're also being tested as well so they have to test them a minimum of twice a twice a week throughout most of their time with an drug court as part of the random drug screens ensure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing and remaining and they were recovery mode and following through with everything that the the judge is instructing them to do so by by having that kind of close relationship with the defender you become very invested in their recovery and very invested in them kind of succeeding you know our goal is as probation officers drug court is to
014get them through the process help them with as much as we can because it's getting the system set up getting different services set up so that when they're done with drug court we'll never see them again as a future participant they can come back and see us as a company somebody's dropping and say hey John how you doing I'm doing well as opposed to see in the back in front of a judge Hanson or judge Lourie or somebody else with more criminal activity so it's a lot more intensive also our drug court probation officers are on call 24 hours seven hours seven days a week so something happened is happening after hours they can call them for emergency versus the basis as I as mi as well so they always have that kind of conduit
015to the court system after hours as well as during the day we always like tend to rely on the regular support says but where there is a backup for them at all times as well okay judge what can participants expect from drug court from your perspective well they they plead in the drug court and the first thing they do is get into treatment as I said before a treatment is a continuum based upon need so we go on the low end of need outpatient which is aan a other 12-step type meetings we go from there to eiope intensive outpatient and then for a higher level of need they go to short-term inpatient which is your traditional 28-day program and thereafter we have long-term inpatient which is four to six months all of which are paid
016for by the state of New Jersey through the drug court program in short-termer long term we also could have an additional layer called a halfway house which is four months after they are released from their inpatient and that would be to stabilize their housing stabilize their medical conditions and provide that much more supervision before they go back into the community and they then resume their there put their place in the community getting back all the things they've lost one of the continual themes of drug court is to remind people what they've lost through their addiction they lose their license they lose their job they lose their families they lose their integrity and then thereafter at the end they lose their freedom what we try to do through the drug court process is give them back
017each one of those things and now we have a two and a half year program a 30 month program when we graduate people at the end of the day we they pretty much have all the things that they've lost back plus the great innovation in modern drug court in New Jersey which makes the program so unique is we can provide a full and complete expungement of their record many many convictions we iook sponged somebody who had 72 convictions just the other day so we expunge the records so when we say at the end of two and a half years they're getting a second chance it's a legitimate second chance without an extensive criminal record because we all know that when you go to get a job you're asked two questions what's your name they do
018ask that then second have you ever convicted of a crime a drug court graduate can circle know or check no because in fact there the record has been expunged so the whole program is really based upon treating the entire individual in a holistic manner and then at the end giving them a second chance at life that's why the program is successful so John from your perspective what can participants expect from drug court for probation well the pro probation they expect to be told upfront you know what the reality is the situation are they expect they can expect to to be heard they can expect their their concerns and their their interest to be looked at they can expect to be told on a regular basis what the realities are what's true they're not true there's
019a lot of misconceptions and misinformation amongst the participants community as far as what's right and wrong and what they can expect not good and not expect but the drug court probation officer will always be upfront with them and again there's the conduit for the rest of the team as far as ensuring that what the judge is telling them what the rest of the team is telling him is getting reiterated to the to do participant so honesty and integrity it would be the main things okay honesty is key you can't recover without honesty it's basic a a and n/a literature that honesty anybody who can be honest can recover and honesty begins not only with honesty the court that's small potatoes honesty with yourself and the honesty that's required is I have an addiction addiction as
020a disease and that it is I have lost my ability to control my actions once you have come to that you're honest about it you can recover and just to piggyback on that their honesty will dictate where they go with their probation officer if they're upfront and honest with the officer then we're more apt to be or more able to help them through their addiction and through their their issues if they're not honest and we have issues with able to kind of deal with what we have to deal with them and we're not able to put them in the right direction I point them in the right direction if they don't tell us what's happening with them on a regular basis this is meet the court and I'm your host Joe Johnson will be back
021with judge Santa and after this message hi my name is Barbara did you know that the superior courts of New Jersey value your feedback in each courthouse we have surveys throughout the building we ask that you take the time and fill one out or take it with you if you don't have the time and send it back to us or go online at NJ courts gov welcome back to meet the court I'm your host joy Johnson my guests today are Judge Mark Sanson and John bond and we're continuing our conversation about adult drug court and its overall benefits to the community so John who comprises the drug court team you spoke about in the last segment yeah this is another unique thing to drug court where the regular trial court you would have a prosecutor
022public defender and the judge would meet the arbitrator and in drug court you have the prosecutor who's in drug court you have a public defender or an attorney you have probation officers you have a coordinator the judge is the captain driving the ship and you also have clinicians that are involved in ensuring that the people are doing at the appropriate level of care as well so it's from your purview what does how is the team approach work in drug court and what are the advantages it is so different from traditional the traditional status of a judge and and lawyers in a courtroom we are we are clearly a team or truly a team we sit down to staff every week every single person in drug court and we're talking about 750 total people it takes
023a long time to staff them in Atlantic where Cape May we sit down with probably around forty people around a very large table we bring up every person in drug court their successes their failures it's all leading to the actual drug court appearance which is usually in Tuesday's in Atlantic and Wednesdays in Cape May at which time my job is to engage each and every participant in a two or three-minute conversation about what they've been what they've been successful with an unsuccessful with in the last weeks and so that I've seen them depending upon the phase they're in drug corta maybe two weeks and maybe a month and it maybe two months depending upon what phase of drug court there in there's four phases of drug court the team advises me in a holistic manner
024as to how they're progressing to get to know who's telling me the truth who isn't telling me the truth what problems there are what trouble spots there are how we can address it this addiction as I said is a disease and it is an adversary to treatment so it is not easy it is not it does not follow a straight path quite often there are relapses there are falling off along the roads so we deal with all these we don't deal with it from a criminal court perspective our answer is not jail we know people do not recover in jail we know people are warehouse in jail and these are you these are not violent people these are people who have a disease and we try to deal with the entire person with the idea
025that treatment is the answer and drug court does provide treatment so if some of our viewers are wondering what are the actual benefits to the drug court participants themselves beyond just saving themselves from their addictions well if it if the if the only thing you got we're saving yourself from your addiction it would be the gift of life I think you're right but the the the what what did--what recovery is is two things one an understanding of your disease the psychological behavioral neurological condition we call addiction and two and very importantly certainly as importantly is developing a sober support network a meeting that you go to a group of sober friends that you have you often have to get rid of non sober friends you have to realize the triggers in your life the triggers
026that make you want to use a trigger is something that creates a certain reaction in your brain that makes you want to use drugs or alcohol people have to learn how to recognize what the triggers are and instead of succumbing giving in to the triggers they have to learn to deal to go to eating to call their sponsor these things work that recovery is possible when people come before me at the very beginning they often say judge I don't I'm not sure I can make it I'm an addict I'm having a very difficult time stopping they all know intellectually by that time that it's destroying their lives and sometimes they despair because they've tried so many times drug court works because we're able to provide some new solutions and were able to finance those solutions
027with treatment and at the end we're able to give them a second start which motivates a lot of these people they don't want to be caught in their addictions they don't want to fail they want to get back with their families they want to get back with their kids they want to get back from the the alienation from there are many times from their backgrounds and we can although not all the time we can in many occasions successfully complete that process in 30 months it's an incredible process and for anybody out there who has an addictive situation and has been charged with a crime drug court is a very viable alternative and we invite people to find out about us and to to come to drug court and the judiciary is supporting this program to
028the maximum extent possible at this point in time so John what treatment modalities are available to individuals who were in drug court it was actually a wide variety of treatment modalities and that's it's actually expanded over the past year where before we never allowed anybody with medicated assistant treatment and but that is now open to people as well so if you have an opioid addiction you can look at methadone suboxone vivitrol naltrexone as a tool to help you get through the early part of your addictions you also have long term inpatient treatment that's available short term inpatient treatment all the spectrum of outpatient from IOP which is intensive outpatient to the relapse recovery to one-to-ones so whatever that person needs to kind of get them through the process and to get them to those life-changing
029events those are all the modalities is available so are there any other topics or parts of the conversation that we haven't covered in our talk so far yeah the the one thing I want to distress the people that our program has substantially changed in reaction to evidence-based solutions which have been developed on a national level the state of New Jersey has reacted quickly and our vicinage in Atlantic and Cape May County and Judge Mendes who is my boss essentially the assignment judge has 100% supported the program and supported all these changes we've reduced the size of excuse me we've increased the size of drug court by almost a hundred percent we have engaged in an allowed medically assisted treatment which is necessary in some of these cases at least for a period of time we
030have supported people and in and job efforts we've formed community partnerships to enable people to get a job one of the necessities of recovery is finding a job and before you finish your four phases of drug court you will get a job on the books it's a requirement so putting the addict back together is the job of the drug court team it's a team approach we all have an equal say in what happens we have a very experienced and dedicated group of people and the only thing I can say to people who are watching this who are in despair we all know family members we all know friends and family members we have friends or maybe it's us we all know people with addiction issues this is an epidemic it is killing a generation of
031Americans there are things you can do drug court while maybe not the answer is an answer to many people who want to change and the whole key to being successful in drug court is your desire to change recovery is change and that's what we try to accomplish well we are just about out of time I'd like to thank our guests for joining us today on meet the court thank you I also would like to thank you our audience for tuning in this is Jawad Johnson goodbye for now [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]