Lawmakers Urged to Expand Drug Programs for First-Time Offenders

Thursday, March 7, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller and other members of the Legislature's Sentencing Advisory Commission were impressed by success reports from the drug court program run by Clark County District Judge Jack Lehman.

Just nine of the 328 people who have gone through the program since November 1993 have been arrested later on. A similar program in Florida has a 70 percent success rate after seven years.

Keller said expanding the program could save the state about $10,000 a year for each inmate spared from a prison sentence. He noted 849 Nevada inmates are drug offenders with no prior convictions.

"If just 20 percent of them were diverted to drug programs, that's 170 people," Keller said Wednesday. "That's a great savings."

The 13-member advisory panel will make recommendations to the 1997 Legislature on possible changes in the state's sentencing laws.

Under drug court programs, drug offenders get acupuncture, counseling and other treatment and make frequent court appearances to talk about their rehabilitation programs.

Douglas County District Judge Dave Gamble, also on the commission, said the judge who runs such programs must be a therapist, parental figure and someone committed to inspiring the participants.

Keller asked the state Department of Prisons to prepare a report before the commission's May 8 meeting in Las Vegas that will show how many of the 849 inmates in prison on first-offense drug crimes could be eligible for treatment programs if they were available.

"If it's 400, then that's a lot of beds that could be freed up for killers and robbers," he said.

Under a sentencing law passed last year, first-time and second-time minor drug offenders no longer get prison time and are referred to treatment programs. The minor drug offenders now in prison committed their crimes before the law took effect last July.