The chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court says drug courts are the best return on investment of any state spending, having saved taxpayers $457 million over the past five years.
“This is the best thing that has happened in my lifetime and probably a lot longer,” Michael Randolph said to the Columbia Rotary Club Tuesday. “It’s working.”
He calculated the savings based on 5,475 drug court graduates over that time and the average daily expense it would have been to house them in jail. Drug courts take people who are convicted of drug-based offenses and give them an opportunity to get their lives on track while staying out of prison.
Randolph said that involves being sober for three to five years while attending weekly meetings with a judge. He said about 50 percent graduate and said that’s favorable to a 30 percent to 35 percent success rate for private addiction centers.
The human face of that effort includes 515 drug-free babies, with Randolph noting a baby born to a mother addicted to drugs costs the state on average $250,000 a year for 18 years, and 3,800 drug-court graduates arenow employed rather than being addicted to drugs.
“That’s like a Nissan plant or a Toyota plant,” Randolph said.
With the success of the programs, now Randolph is on a campaign to get a little more to expand the concept to include both mental health courts and veterans courts. He’s traveling the state to push for his budget request for an additional $4.2 million for the state’s courts.
That includes $2 million to set up 19 pilot programs for what are called invention courts, which expand the drug court concept to also include mental health and help for veterans. There would also be three new drug courts started as part of that program.
Randolph is making the budget request to the Legislature because as chief justice he is the head of the state’s judicial branch of government. He took over that position Feb. 1 following the retirement of former Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. Randolph has served on the state’s high court since 2004.
Another $2 million of his budget request would go to a pay increase for the state’s circuit and chancery judges. Randolph said they haven’t had an increase since 2012, leading to turnover just this year of 42 of the state’s 109 trial court judges.
Randolph said the Legislature included annual raises for judges in a 2012 bill at an amount to be recommended by the state personnel board, but he said that has never been implemented. He said he’s not asking to make up for any of the time that was missed but said the increase is needed going forward to get back on track and retain quality judges.
Present at Randolph’s talk included State Rep. Ken Morgan, State Sen. Angela Hill, Circuit Judges Tony Mozingo and Prentiss Harrell and Circuit Clerk Janette Nolan, all of whom have various interactions with the judicial system.
Several expressed concerns about having language added to the legislation Randolph is proposing that would waive the participation fee for drug court. Harrell said the fee is about $75 per month.
Randolph said he agreed that participants need some skin in the game and that he supports keeping the fee.
