Rowe: 'No doubt' Lubbock County specialty courts making a difference

March 31-- Mar. 31--(Editor's note: Follow the Avalanche-Journal's continued focus on specialty courts in a six-part series running each Sunday through April 14. Next Sunday's story will share one specialty court graduate's experience of working through addiction to regain a productive role in the community.)

Lubbock County's specialty courts can give law enforcement a helping hand by giving some people charged with addiction-related crimes a way to avoid becoming repeat offenders.

While the traditional route in criminal justice has been to incarcerate people, the three specialty courts in Lubbock County offer another option -- a proactive approach focused on the underlying causes of criminal behavior. The programs are aimed at decreasing recidivism by addressing an offender's addiction, said Lubbock County Sheriff Kelly Rowe.

Before Lubbock County's specialty courts program launched, Rowe said, there was an 89 percent recidivism rate in Lubbock County, meaning nearly nine in 10 people convicted of a crime would re-offend.

But since specialty courts were launched in the county in 2004, more than 870 probationers have gone through one of the county's specialty courts. More than 480 people have graduated and, of those graduates, about 12 percent re-offend three years later, according to A-J archives.

Rowe said that helps make a difference in an environment where crime often is rooted in addiction.

"The better than 70 percent of the individuals that are currently charged and incarcerated out at the detention center are in for addiction-related offenses," said Rowe. "Although they may not be charged with the actual possession or use, they're in for the burglary, the robbery or the theft they did to support the habit."

A way to work past those offenses is with the specialty courts aimed toward people with addiction, he said.

"The drug court was kind of the first one to kick off there and really get into the concentrated, comprehensive method of trying to work these folks past these addiction issues and get them back out," said Rowe. "That's where you're going to get your success stories from, and that is what (the specialty courts) are doing."

Even though there are many success stories, he acknowledged there are a number of people who will ultimately fail.

People charged with some crimes have to go through an assessment with the courts to find candidates who are a good fit for the programs, he said.

Rowe said the jail, the District Attorney's office and the courts play an important role in coming together in a collective effort to be sure the specialty courts are effective.

He added that what's important about the specialty courts is that they are not a simple pass to get back into society.

"Nobody's looking to give these individuals a pass," said Rowe. "There's still a high degree of accountability. Yeah, you may have an addiction problem, but there's a path of victimization you've left in your wake."

He said this is why candidates have to be carefully chosen, because studies have shown that the ones who want to participate the most have the lowest overall success rates.

"Of course none of these things can be compelled," said Rowe. "Ultimately, the person has to say, 'I'm willing to participate.'"

The other big piece that has to be added in with the specialty courts is successfully transitioning people back into the community.

"We don't have, community wise, the ability to transition them out of the life and the lifestyle they've been living," said Rowe.

He said incarceration is not a long-term solution, adding he feels that he and the judges in the specialty courts agree that accountability in these cases is the key.

"Accountability still has to be there," said Rowe. "These guys made decisions, grown-up decisions. They gotta live with those decisions, and there's still a penalty to pay to society for the crimes they've committed to this point. We will do everything we can do to get them past it and get them turned back into successful, tax-paying citizens."

But he said he has become a true believer that the specialty courts work.

"There's no doubt in my mind that it's making a difference," said Rowe.

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