By Michael Howell
Montana Statewide Drug Court Coordinator Jeffrey Kushner, who lives in the Victor area, was recently honored by the Montana Supreme Court and presented with a plaque for his “outstanding contributions to Montana citizens through work in the Judicial Branch.”
Kushner was one of three judicial branch employees to receive recognition this year. The awards are based upon a nomination process. Kushner was nominated by District Court Judge Mary Jane Knisely from Billings, “for his exceptional contributions in expanding and solidifying treatment courts as not only a viable but now frequently chosen criminal justice alternative.”
As Statewide Drug Court Coordinator for the State of Montana, Kushner is responsible for monitoring and delivering technical assistance to all of Montana’s drug courts as well as data collection through a statewide data collection system, biennial Montana drug court conference, grant writing and administration, and other duties. He is also the designated person by the Montana Department of Transportation for planning and monitoring the state’s DUI courts.
Drug Courts in Montana are court dockets within a district court, city, municipal, or justice court’s jurisdiction that specialize in criminal, child abuse and neglect, or juvenile cases involving people who are addicted to alcohol or other drugs. Drug Courts were first developed in Dade County (Miami), Florida in 1989 to reduce the tremendous backlog of drug-related court cases and to reduce recidivism and substance abuse among participants. This is accomplished by successfully habilitating offenders with a high risk to reoffend and a high need for treatment through intensive alcohol and drug abuse treatment, mandatory and frequent drug testing, accountability through use of appropriate and quick sanctions for non-compliant behavior, incentives and recognition for hard work, continuous judicial oversight and employment and other services needed in order to enter long-term recovery and become productive members of society.
The position of statewide coordinator was created by the Montana Legislature in 2007 and Kushner is the first person to occupy the position, serving from January 2008 to the present. But it was not his first position in the field of drug courts. He came here from St. Louis, Missouri where he planned and implemented that city’s first drug court and the first drug court in eastern Missouri in 1996.
The St. Louis Drug Court implemented innovative mechanisms for the delivery of services to drug court clients including the use of managed care principles in its contracting for treatment services and established the St. Louis Drug Court Treatment Network including seven different not-for-profit treatment agencies. He also helped plan and implement the pre-plea adult felony drug court docket, a juvenile drug court docket, a family drug court docket, a post-plea felony docket, a co-occurring docket and juvenile marijuana docket.
The concept of drug courts is pretty simple, according to Kushner. It means spending money on treatment for offenders, instead of locking them up. It means, instead of spending an estimated $35,000 for a year of imprisonment, you spend $7,000 on an intensive treatment program that is highly monitored. The client can often continue working at his or her current job or receive job training as part of the treatment program. The aim is to reduce recidivism and save the costs to government and society of repeated criminal behavior and more costs for incarceration.
According to Kushner, the treatment programs have proven to be highly successful at their mission and the cost/benefit analysis performed proves that money and lives are being saved. St. Louis Drug Court, under his tenure, completed one of the few comprehensive drug court cost benefit research studies in the country. In January 2015, the Montana Drug Courts issued a report in which this state’s activities were analyzed from May 2008 through October 2014. Both these studies verify the cost effectiveness and efficiency of treatment programs through the drug courts.
The key to the success of the programs, according to Kushner, is the commitment to strict monitoring, coupled with intense support and incentives for a change in behavior. One thing the studies show is that the success of these treatment programs is directly related to how long the treatment lasts. The chances that someone in a treatment program will re-offend go down in direct proportion to the amount of time they put into the treatment. If a client can be kept in the treatment program for at least a year the chances that they will ever re-offend are diminished dramatically.
There are currently 31 drug courts in Montana. In the next months two more will be added, one in Glasgow and one in Dillon. Ravalli County is not a part of the state’s Drug Court system.