WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) today questioned witnesses at a hearing of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism studying the impact of drug and veterans treatment courts, trumpeting Delaware’s leadership in the area.
Since their establishment in the late 1980s and early 1990s, drug courts for repeat offenders and special courts for veterans suffering from substance abuse problems have been utilized by nearly half of America’s counties. Intended both to reduce courts’ caseload and to help provide more effective treatment to non-violent drug offenders who would otherwise face incarceration, these drug courts have handled the cases of an estimated 120,000 offenders over the past two decades.
“Drug and veterans courts are good public policy and have had a strong, positive impact on our communities,” Senator Coons said following the hearing. “They are a cost effective way to reduce recidivism and crime, and they minimize the costs of crime on the offenders themselves by helping them to address the root causes of criminal activity."
Delaware established its first local drug court program in 1994 and three years later it expanded into the nation’s first statewide program. Delaware’s program allows eligible offenders to enter diversion programs to avoid the costs and stigma of criminal prosecution while providing offenders with the resources they need to combat their drug problems and subsequently rejoin society as productive members.
In February, Delaware launched its veterans court program, which was spearheaded by Kent County Superior Court Judge William L. Witham, Jr., and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden. By its August session, the Delaware veterans court will have had 20 men and women appear, and so far not one of the offenders has violated his or her probation. Of those who have come through the court, half are Vietnam-era veterans and the other half are from first Gulf War, and Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
“I am particularly proud of the leadership role that Attorney General Biden and Judge Witham have played in bringing a veterans court to our state,” Senator Coons said. “At present, approximately 17.5 percent of Delaware’s National Guard is deployed overseas. When these brave men and women return home, we owe it to them to recognize that their service may give them not just physical scars, but mental ones. Thanks to Delaware’s veterans court, servicemen and women who find themselves embroiled in the criminal justice system will have better access to treatment that recognizes their sacrifice to our nation.”
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