In 2010, amid handwringing over the $13 trillion national debt, a stagnant economy, and newly announced pay freezes for civilian federal workers, a U.S. magistrate judge in Charleston was given a directive that, at the time, must have seemed quixotic.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder with U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Hendricks and a BRIDGE participant in April 2014. Photo courtesy Hendricks.
Judge Bruce Hendricks’ boss, Chief U.S. District Court Judge David Norton, wanted her to start the first federal “drug court” in South Carolina. It was called the BRIDGE Program, and it represented a dramatic departure from the hard-line punitive approach that federal prosecutors had traditionally taken when dealing with defendants who were accused of drug-related crimes.
The state’s inaugural BRIDGE court graduated its first class of defendants in 2012. It was a small class. The alumni could have fit comfortably in a minivan, but they were seven addicts who stayed sober for two years, avoided prison and, in doing so, saved taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars while proving the concept of therapy over punishment.
After taking root in the Holy City, a second BRIDGE Program opened at the federal courthouse in Greenville and a third was recently established in Florence. A fourth and final federal drug court is slated to open in Columbia within the next few months.
“We’re just extending it all over South Carolina,” said Hendricks, who is now a U.S. District Court judge. She has garnered praise from former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts for her work on the BRIDGE Program.
So far, 23 defendants have made it through the program, which has saved taxpayers more than $486,000, according to Hendricks. She based the savings on an estimated annual cost of $29,000 to house a federal prisoner.
Calling the drug courts’ budget lean would be an understatement. Hendricks says the program essentially costs nothing because it relies on existing staff. A trial judge, prosecutor, public defender, probation officer, and drug treatment provider make up the typical BRIDGE team.
“We had zero extra money, but we’ve made this work on the existing budgets that we have,” Hendricks said. “It’s mainly just the extra time above and beyond what the courts already do that’s required for this to work.”
How drug court works
The drug court operates on a system of attaboys and sanctions that are designed to encourage participants to stay sober and out of trouble. Those who follow the rules get little rewards such as neckties, self-help literature, and snacks. But the best prize of all is having their charges reduced or dismissed when they successfully complete the program.
Defendants who miss an AA appointment, fail to bring in verification of their work hours, or commit some other type of minor misstep might get community service, spend the night in jail, or be asked to write a “thinking report” about what they’ve done wrong.
Not all participants graduate. Some are kicked out of the program because they kept using drugs or committed more crimes. And only about half of those who apply for drug court get in, according to Hendricks.
“We’re careful in the selection process,” she said.
The BRIDGE team members have to be convinced that an applicant’s crimes are tied to their drug addictions and that they’re sincere about getting help before they can be considered for the program. Sex offenders and violent criminals are automatically ineligible.
Drug court is similar to probation in that defendants have to submit to random drug tests and check in with their probation officers. But the supervision is more intense and, more importantly, the participants periodically have to get dressed up, make the trek to the courthouse, stand before a judge and discuss their progress and setbacks. That judge is often Hendricks.
“Having to account for themselves in front of a judge is different than accounting for themselves in front of a probation officer,” she said.
‘It becomes overwhelming’
As Hendricks has been growing the drug courts, South Carolina’s U.S. Attorney, Bill Nettles, a public defender-turned prosecutor, has been standing behind her. He sees the BRIDGE Program as a piece of his larger effort to buck the trend of locking up low-level drug dealers and their customers.
“We tried to incarcerate our way out of the problem,” he said, referring to the “war on drugs” reaction to the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s. “That idea has been tried for a long time. And the data supports, without a doubt, that the idea does not work.”
Former Attorney General Eric Holder with U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Hendricks and a BRIDGE participant. Photo courtesy Hendricks.
Charleston’s drug court is operating at capacity, with about 20 participants, while only two defendants are enrolled in the Greenville program and another two are participating in Florence.
But Nettles expects that those latter two locations, which are new, and the fourth drug court in Columbia will all be at capacity within the next five years, meaning there will be 80 people in federal drug courts across South Carolina.
“There are other states that had [federal] drug courts before us, but I can’t think of another district in the entire country that has aggressively and effectively installed as many drug courts as we have. Period,” Nettles said.
The BRIDGE Program leans heavily on the state’s federal probation office, which has to devote a probation officer for each of the drug courts. Both Nettles and Hendricks credited Dicke Brunson, chief U.S. probation officer for the state, with making the program possible.
“If he had nixed this, it never would have gotten off the ground,” Nettles said.
The probation officers who watch over drug court participants are constantly taking calls from defendants who are seeking advice and guidance on what Brunson refers to as “a whole lot of different matters.”
“It just becomes overwhelming,” he said. “From what I’m told, the drug offenders are very needy. They’re just not used to responsibility in any way, or knowing how to conduct themselves in certain situations. … They call the probation office quite a bit.”
For every federal drug court in the state there is one probation officer who oversees all the participants in that particular BRIDGE Program. The officers do not receive any additional training before they make the switch, said Brunson. He added that the ratio of drug court participants to officers should be capped at 20-to-1.
“I think that is all that an officer can handle at one time based on the demands that have been described to me,” he said.
When one of his officers switched over to the drug court in Charleston, he was able to replace her with a new hire. He wants to hire three officers to fill in for those who have gone or will go to the other drug courts. Otherwise, their colleagues will have to take on the extra cases that the BRIDGE Program officers leave behind.
“I think this is a good program. This is a shift for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and I think it offers tremendous hope for saving taxpayers a tremendous amount of money,” he said. “We just need, eventually, at some point, Congress or somebody to fund these types of positions.”
Follow Phillip Bantz on Twitter @SCLWBantz