05/01/2025
All Rise: Treatment courts reduce crime, save lives, and strengthen communities
Every day, courtrooms across the United States are filled with individuals impacted by substance use and mental health disorders. Without treatment to address the underlying cause of criminal behavior, many will continue to cycle in and out of the justice system, burdening law enforcement and at tremendous expense to taxpayers. Treatment courts break this cycle by holding individuals accountable through a combination of treatment and rigorous supervision and returning them to the community as healthy, productive citizens. Today, approximately 4,000 treatment courts across the nation are now considered the most successful justice intervention in our nation’s history, proving that when one person, family, and community rises, we all rise.
May is National Treatment Court Month and the perfect time to tell the story of how our treatment court, the Hutchinson County Adult Drug Court, is vital to cutting crime, saving money, and making our community safe.
This May is also the month in which two of our most recent graduates will walk the stage at Frank Phillips College to earn college degrees they once thought impossible to attain.
After years of struggling with a substance use disorder, they became clients of the Hutchinson County Adult Drug Court. They were at the end of the road facing prison time and continued substance abuse. But when they got the chance to participate in our program, where they met regularly with a case manager and received rigorous treatment and counseling, they began to pull their lives back together. While in the program, they enrolled at Frank Phillips College and worked full time jobs plus met the rigorous demands of our drug court program. They completed the treatment court program and are now receiving degrees from Frank Phillips College and reconnecting with family, friends and the community. Today, thanks to their hard work and the hard work of the Hutchinson County Drug Court Team they are happy, healthy, employed, and contributing to our community. Congratulations to Lashia Walker and Jovannie Perez! Not only congratulations to them but congratulations to all our drug court graduates who have changed their lives forever.
These are just a couple of the stories of the thousands of individual stories that demonstrate why treatment courts are so critical in the effort to address addiction and related crime. Approximately 65% of the U.S. prison population has a substance use disorder, and another 20% were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of their crime. The largest and most comprehensive multi-site study ever conducted on treatment courts found reductions in crime averaging 58% and savings of more than $6,000 for every individual served. Further benefits include improved education, employment, housing, financial stability, and family reunification.
Treatment courts are our most effective approach to the devastation of addiction and justice involvement. This year’s National Treatment Court Month celebration should signal that the time has come to reap the economic and societal benefits of expanding this proven solution to all in need.
James M. Mosley
316th Dist. Judge/Hutchinson County Adult Drug Court Judge
