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Wiseman: Now is the best time to have a drug court
As problems with methamphetamine or “ice” continue to plague the CNMI, now is the best time to establish a drug court in the Commonwealth, according to Associate Judge David A. Wiseman.
Speaking before the Rotary Club of Saipan at the Hyatt Regency Saipan yesterday, Wiseman explained how a drug court works to help society.
“The proposed Commonwealth drug court being pursued by the three branches of government will be a specialized, problem solving court that incorporates drug dependency treatment with intensive court supervision for qualifying defendants,” he said.
Over 3,000 drug courts are now established in the U.S. and all 50 states have at least one.
According to Wiseman, drug courts are a drastic departure from traditional criminal justice. In such a court, the approach is non-adversarial as it focuses on long-term rehabilitation rather than immediate punitive or retributive punishment.
“The concept of a drug court is based on the philosophy of reward and punishment and rewards are reserved for those who accomplish the goals that the drug court evaluators have established,” Wiseman said.
He said he is optimistic that the Senate will pass their bill this week with regards o establishing drug court after the House passed theirs weeks ago.
“Once a drug court bill establishes, we’ll have a team put together,” Wiseman said.
According to a data provided by Wiseman, drug courts reduce re-arrest or reconviction rates by approximately 8 to 26 percent on average and reduce crime as much as 45 percent more than other sentencing options.
