Stone County Treatment Court Gives Another Option For Those Ready For Change

Robert Kail, left, stands with Stone County Treatment Court Judge Alan Blankenship at the treatment court graduation on Thursday, July 19. Kail is only one of several people who graduated from the program that night.

Have you heard of Drug or DWI Court and wondered what the program actually does? Stone County Treatment Courts provide a program over at least 18 months that attempts to help individuals get and stay sober, and for some, helps them avoid jail time.
The program in Stone County started in 2004, according to Judge Alan Blankenship, who helps oversee the program. “We had very little money at the beginning, just a desire to start a program,” he said.
Since the program began, 275 individuals have graduated from the rigorous program, said Chrissy Fortner, Treatment Court Administrator.
The whole program is designed to last 18 months, with most individuals taking around two years to complete. “The program is a minimum of 18 months, but it takes most people 20-24 months to finish it,” Blankenship said.
What the program entails:
“With drug court, it is much more intensely supervised than almost any other kind of probation,” Blankenship said, adding, “It is much more focused on treatment as well.”
The program consists of at least twice weekly drug screenings, mandatory counseling and meetings with probation officers, among other details. “Every morning, everyone in the program has to call in and see if they have to go be tested,” Blankenship said. “For regular probation, they might only be tested half a dozen times a year, with drug court, it’s 100 times a year.”
Participants are required to be in court at least once a month. They are required to pay a fee to help pay the cost of the program, as well as do at least 150 hours of community service.
Participants are required to get substance use treatment, as well as for any other mental disorders that need to be treated, according to Blankenship.
Participants without a high school diploma are also required to get their high school equivalency if they are able to. “We looked at the numbers a few years ago and 95% had their high school equivalency by the end of the program,” Blankenship said.
The goal of the treatment court is to change future behavior. “We expect people to mess up at first,” Blankenship said. “But, over time, they start participating and responding to the program.”
Part of the success of the program has to do with its responsiveness to research and best practices, Blankenship said. “This is the most heavily researched criminal justice response. We look at the research periodically and adjust what we are doing based on best practices as they are understood,” he said.
Another part of the responsiveness is the way the whole team looks at each individual. “Before we have court each month, the whole team gets together, attorneys, prosecutors, probation officers, everyone and looks at the progress of each participant individually,” Blankenship said.
The “benefit” of the program is also individualized based on the participants arrest records and other criteria. “Some get a more favorable offer if they agree to participate in treatment court,” Blankenship said, “some may get their cases dismissed, some might get off of probation early, and some can avoid prison. It all depends on the person and their history.”
History of the Stone County Treatment Court
Since beginning in 2004, the Treatment Court has expanded from just a “drug court” to include two more specialized versions of the program, one for DWIs and the other for Veterans. “After starting with basically no budget, it has evolved over time to become a nationally recognized program,” Blankenship said.
At any point, the number of participants ranges from 80 to 120, according to Fortner.
After several successful years, Stone County was encouraged to apply to become a mentor court. After a rigorous application process and an inspection by the National Drug Court Institute, Stone County Treatment Courts were selected to become a mentor court in 2013. “We are one of eight programs in the country that have a status as a mentor court,” Blankenship said.
“Since becoming a mentor court, we have been visited and worked with teams from North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Idaho, Washington [state], Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky and Georgia,” said Judge Blankenship.
A mentor court helps groups from other states train and set up a successful treatment court program.
After several individuals have successfully completed the program, a graduation event is held at the Stonebridge Resort in Branson West. The various administrators and parts of the treatment court team speak to the graduates, their loved ones and some past graduates. Then, each participant is given the opportunity to speak to everyone gathered about their journey through the program. Each graduate is given a certificate, a coin and a copy of a poem.
Why Treatment Court instead of prison?
Treatment Courts, which used evidence backed programs to help participants, have been found to be far more effective, and cheaper, than simply sentencing individuals to prison.
According to Stone County Treatment courts, the average cost to the state per participant is $4,400. This contrasts sharply to the cost of incarceration of approximately $26,000 per year.
Graduates of the treatment court program are also far less likely to re-enter the justice system. According to Fortner, the program defines recidivism as an arrest for a new misdemeanor or felony offense after completing the program.
For graduates of the treatment court program, recidivism is less than 20%. According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, the average rate of recidivism for individuals released from prison is 60%.
If the treatment court is not only cheaper, but also more effective than incarceration, why is it not more popular? Resources and the participants, to state it simply.
Judge Blankenship says that the program can only succeed if the participants want to succeed. It’s not a sure thing, in other words.
Further, the Stone County team is not large enough to supervise more than the 80 to 125 participants at any given time.