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Treatment Court Observation

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Friday October 3, 2014 I visited the treatment court presided over by the Honorable Judge John Brown, who has been with treatment court for the past 3 years. Treatment court is a bi lateral contract between the defendant and the State of Montana where the court provides an avenue for willing participants to integrate themselves back into society, it is an alternative to traditional sentencing where substance abuse is a motivating factor for the offender’s criminal behavior. The five fundamentals of treatment court are as follows, sobriety, responsibility, honesty, integrity, and service. During the 18-month program participants are required to abstain from using any mind-altering substances, they must also report any substance uses to the …show more content…

Crystal was a 43-year-old waitress from three forks. Her husband is a convenience store manager and she currently has her own 2 teenage children living with her as well as a nephew, all of who depend on her and her husband. Thus far she had been in custody for 6 weeks. Crystal had been a lifetime user, when asked what her drug of choice was she gave the response “anything and everything”. Crystal admitted to using meth, coke, weed, pain pills, and heroin intravenously. Her first drug offense happened while living in Missoula at the age of 28 where she started prison almost twelve years ago. Following that sentence Crystal had been sober for six years, until she had to have a hip surgery that led her back down the path of drug abuse. She has many prior offenses and recently served 4 years in prison of a ten year suspended sentence. Had crystal not agreed to drug court there was a possibility that the 10 year sentence by Lewis and Clark county would have been reinstated and she would have gone back to prison for the 6 remaining years of that sentence. After treatment court and her current situation and options had been explained to her Crystal signed a contract and was therefore accepted into the treatment court program. It was explained to her that she must comply with all the requirements of drug court, and she was provided with a backpack containing an alarm clock, day planner, meeting schedule, bus route and schedule, as well as the blue book. The backpack is courtesy of the friends of treatment court, a local group of citizens who want to see participants succeed and return to a normal life. Crystal’s goals after the completion of Treatment court are to finish her degree, and become a productive member of

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