Communication with the community necessarily involves outreach to the media. Practitioners must build a media strategy, including a crisis response plan, to ensure the court is presenting a positive image of the program’s goals and achievements. If a court has fostered media support, when a critical incident occurs the media will have an accurate knowledge base from which to report.
A successful team effort can provide the community with the factual basis for sustained funding.
Team members can build community understanding by inviting the court staff, law enforcement, community leaders, and the media to planning sessions, courtroom hearings, graduations, and alumni events. Graduation ceremonies, in particular, are positive events that allow members of the community to see the results of a problem-solving court. When a program graduate describes their experience, they are able to powerfully personalize the message of drug court. Influential community members, including law enforcement, probation and parole officials, prosecutors, legislators, and city and county officials should routinely be invited to attend graduation ceremonies and interact with program graduates. Publicity from these graduations can make it clear that a problem-solving court is a valuable asset to the community.
Judges have a unique ability to effectively communicate with the public, graduates, providers, legislators, and the media and play a powerful role in reaching the community if they clearly describe the benefits of problem-solving courts and are given the necessary informational tools to support their delivery. Effective judicial leadership can overcome bureaucracy and skepticism through both positional authority and personal relationships. Team members can also act as leaders for their agencies and speak to the community about how drug courts achieve many agency missions and goals. A successful team effort can provide the community with the factual
basis for sustained funding. Presentations on reductions in recidivism and system-wide cost savings can set the stage for long-term community commitment and sustainable funding.
Community Education Efforts: Judicial Education Missouri
Judge Patricia Joyce, who worked to found juvenile†, adult† and family*† drug courts in Jefferson City, Missouri, suggests that finding the seed money to start drug court programs is only the start of the process needed to develop sustainable funding for drug court models. According to Judge Joyce, drug court practitioners and judges may need to educate themselves about resource acquisition. Judge Joyce says many judges “do not have an understanding of the state funding systems” or the “intricacies of the budgets in the state government”. However, judges do know which agencies are most likely to commit resources and funding to build pilots. According to Judge Joyce, judges who want to develop drug courts should “not be intimidated” and should “do an analysis of where the pockets of money are for a particular type of drug court.”
According to Judge Joyce, judges should develop a “comprehensive view of the budgeting process and how [they] can sell the program.” Courts need to demonstrate success and develop a good reputation in order to build community support. It is also important for teams to remain ready to “defend the program if there is any threat or opposition to the court”. Consistent educational efforts have contributed to the spread of drug courts in Missouri, which has made it easier for other drug courts to start. When judges express excitement about the effectiveness of their drug courts, barriers to the development of new models are substantially reduced.
Community Education Efforts: Leveraging Partnerships Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In the spring of 2003, when Pennsylvania's budget called for the elimination of $104 million in funding for drug and alcohol treatment, Louis J. Presenza, president judge and treatment court judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court*†, took a leadership role in advocating for the restoration of funding. "The loss of these funds would have had a devastating effect on the availability and accessibility to drug and alcohol treatment for uninsured and underinsured clients, including Philadelphia Treatment Court clients" said Judge Presenza. He sparked a letter writing campaign to the governor and state legislators. Quoting another Philadelphian, Benjamin Franklin, he called the budget cuts "Penny wise and pound foolish."
Judge Presenza enlisted the enthusiastic support of Lynne Abraham, the Philadelphia district attorney, in this cause and focused on the impact the loss of funding for drug and alcohol treatment would have on treatment courts statewide. Their joint appearance, along with Sylvester Johnson, Philadelphia's police commissioner and other notable elected officials at a rally drawing thousands in front of Philadelphia's historic city hall evidenced the broad public support for funding restoration. Working with other advocacy groups, they were able to achieve restoration of $100 million in state funding for drug and alcohol treatment.
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When another funding crisis arose in the spring of 2004, Judge Presenza and Lynne Abraham were once again united in seeking to block funding cuts for their offices proposed by the mayor. If the budget had been cut, the drug court would not have been able to maintain its staffing of treatment court and take advantage of a grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to increase the number of treatment court clients. Thanks to the documented success of Philadelphia Treatment Court, both the mayor and city council have since become strong supporters of the drug court.
Community Education Efforts: Judges in the Community San Bernardino, California
Judge Tara Reilly, superior court judge in the County of San Bernardino, California suggests, “at every opportunity, judges need to get out of their courtrooms and into their communities! They should speak to every possible civic, charitable, educational, and interested group that is in the community. They should make an appointment to meet with chiefs of police and ask for their assistance in monitoring clients in the community and ask for one officer to be assigned to the program full time.” According to Judge Reilly, judges should become integrally involved with the treatment community, including mental health providers, sober living homes, family service agencies, and religious based organizations. She believes that judges should “participate in Red Ribbon Week festivities, march with your clients in local parades; in other words be visible and always be ready to share the latest statistics, research, and benefits of treatment courts. Take the initiative and call local elected officials to invite them to visit your courts, write letters of commendation to your graduates, or help with legislation that may fund these worthwhile programs. Be proactive and visible to your community.”
Community Education Efforts: Educating Decision Makers Oregon
Judge Dennis Graves was president of the Oregon Association of Drug Court Professionals (OADCP) from 2003 to 2006. During that time, the OADCP worked hard to ensure the sustainability of Oregon's drug courts by obtaining state funding. Judge Graves says, “the Oregon Judicial Department had been essentially standing on the sideline during the 2003 and 2005 legislative sessions in regard to obtaining state funding for drug courts”. New legislation was necessary, but the department focused on obtaining its base budget before seeking any specific drug court funding. Because of that posture, Oregon's drug courts were dependent on federal grants for funding.
Judge Graves and the Oregon Association of Drug Court Professionals developed a legislative strategy to obtain state funding for Oregon's drug courts. Judge Graves arranged during the legislative session to hold a weekly drug court session at the State Capitol Building. Judge Graves says, "I garnered a few key legislative leaders' support and then facilitated cooperation between the sheriff's office (which provides courtroom security) and the Oregon State Police which provides security in the Capitol". Drug court participants who were serving custody sanctions were transported to the Capitol by county deputies in cooperation with the state police. Judge Graves says, "with the cooperation of a lot of people, we carried it off without a hitch!" Two individuals graduated from drug court that day and one person was taken into custody. One
participant had been evicted from her apartment the previous week and three other participants, including the client taken into custody that day, received certificates for moving her furniture to a storage unit donated by a faith-based member of the team. Drug court teams from across the state attended the event and made contact with their local legislators. The court session was videostreamed throughout the Capitol so legislators who did not attend in person could still see a drug court in action.
As a result, the 2005 Oregon legislature passed a first time funding package for Oregon drug courts. Judge Graves is convinced this "Take Drug Court to the Capitol" event played a critical role in ensuring the sustainability of the states' drug courts.
Community Educational Efforts: Community Message Boards Fort Washakie, Wyoming
The Wind River Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Substance Abuse Court in Fort Washakie, Wyoming† primarily serves Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribal members in an area that is shared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Joint Business Chambers for both tribes, and the Indian Health Services. Marsha Taggart, of the Indian Health Services, contacted the drug court to offer the team use of a community billboard located within the reservation’s borders. Ms. Taggart and Dawn Bitz, the tribal drug court coordinator, entered into an agreement on behalf of the Indian Health Services and the drug court that allowed the drug court to post messages on the billboard as long as the messages include an educational piece about tobacco. As a result, the drug court has been able to provide information about drug court, alcohol abuse, and a drug-free lifestyle (including an antismoking message). The bottom of the billboard indicates that the message is “sponsored by the Tribal Substance Abuse Court and the I.H.S.” and will be changed quarterly. The message selection is a shared process drawing on input from drug court clients and tribal elders in the community. This educational effort is modeled on the Anti-Meth Campaign in Montana and the Prevention of Underage Drinking Campaign in Wyoming. The drug court team is also considering posting messages on private property along major highways and airing testimonials on local radio stations.