Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions-Campus Classmate Offenders in Rehabilitation and Treatment Act of 2003

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. CAMPBELL:

S. 399. A bill to authorize grants for the establishment of quasi-judicial campus drug courts at colleges and universities modeled after State drug courts programs; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CAMPBELL. Madam President, today I introduce the "Campus Classmate Offenders in Rehabilitation and Treatment Act of 2003."

The legislation I am introducing today is based on legislation I previously introduced toward the end of the 107th Congress.

The Campus Classmate Offenders in Rehabilitation and Treatment Act, which can also be referred to as the "Campus CORT Act," directs the Department of Justice to establish a demonstration program to provide grants and training to help our Nation's universities and colleges establish new quasi-judicial systems. These systems aim at countering the serious drug and substance abuse related problems that are taking such a heavy toll on our institutions of higher learning and the students who attend them. The demonstration program, which would be administered by the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, would be based on the valuable lessons and successes we have garnered from our Nation's innovative and expanding drug court system.

Specifically, this demonstration program legislation would authorize the establishment of up to five Campus CORTs each year for Fiscal Years 2004 through 2007. The bill authorizes the Office of Justice Programs to provide $2,000,000 in Federal funding during each of those years to help get five Campus CORTs well trained, soundly established and up and running. This new program's approach should be similar to how the Office of Justice Programs currently runs the ongoing drug court grant-making program, including providing an Internet-based application process.

There are plenty of good reasons to take the next step and establish a Campus CORTs program based on the drug court model. Since they first appeared in 1989, drug courts have rapidly spread all across the Nation. Rather than simply locking-up nonviolent drug offenders in prison along side violent criminals, drug courts provide the alternative of court-supervised treatment. Instead of simply punishing, drug courts help get people clean.

Drug courts' many successes are underscored both by the bipartisan support they have received in Congress and by the Bush Administration. For example, during a national conference hosted this last April by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, both Office of National Drug Control Policy Director John Walters, our Nation's "Drug Czar," and Drug Enforcement Agency Director Asa Hutchinson gave speeches in support of drug courts and the benefits they provide.

According to the latest statistics as reported by the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, as of November 2002, 946 Drug Courts are operating all across the United States. This is an impressive increase of approximately 250 Drug Courts over the past year. This 946 Drug Courts includes 547 Adult Drug Courts, 245 Juvenile Drug Courts, 59 Family Drug Courts and 14 Combination Courts. Over 400 additional new Drug Courts are in the planning process.

The report goes on to state that approximately 300,000 adults and 12,000 juveniles have been enrolled in the drug court system to date. Of those participants, 73,000 adults and 4,500 juveniles have successfully graduated from Drug Courts.

The merits of the drug court system are well documented. Nationwide, drug courts have been instrumental in enabling more than 1,000 children to be born drug free, more than 3,500 parents to regain custody of their children, and 4,500 parents to resume making their child-support payments. The retention rate is over 70 percent with 73 percent of the participants managing to keep their jobs or successfully find new work. These are encouraging statistics, and not just for the individuals involved, but for society as a whole.

While it is not as easy to measure, we know that Drug Courts play a beneficial role in reducing criminal behavior since so much crime these days is drug related.

Drug Courts also help save up money. It is estimated that every dollar spent on Drug Courts saves our country and communities approximately ten dollars in reduced prison and other criminal justice costs.

These are the kind of successes we should be able to see once the drug court model is customized and applied through Campus CORTs as we work together to respond to the alcohol, drug and other substance abuse challenges facing our Nation's colleges and universities.

Just as drugs are deeply interconnected with crime on our streets, drugs and serious substance abuse are also interconnected with much of the academic failure that damages so many of our Nation's institutions of higher learning and their aspiring students seeking college degrees.

Our Nation's drug courts use a carrot and stick approach where offenders can either live at home and remain free to work under court supervised treatment or face the very real threat of hard jail time. Similarly, Campus CORTs will give troubled students the chance to get supervised treatment and stay clean or get kicked out of school and watch their futures get squandered away.

Instead of simply booting students with substance abuse problems directly out of school, as is currently happening at many universities and colleges all across the country, I believe we should instead help provide institutions of higher learning with new tools they can use to help students get and stay clean. Of course, just like it is with the existing drug courts, there will be some students who simply do not respond to Campus CORTs. While those students will have to face the fact that they may well be expelled from school, at least we will have been able to give them the opportunity to clean-up their act.

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Since the new Campus CORTs would be established at colleges and universities, the legislation calls on the Office of Justice Programs, or OJP, to establish new "quasi-judicial standards and procedures for disciplinary cases" for institutions of higher learning that wish to participate in the new Federal program.

Today, I am pleased to highlight that one of the leading institutions of higher learning in my home State, Colorado State University, CSU, has already broken new ground as the Nation's first university to apply the drug court concept in a campus setting. The "Day IV" program, as it is known at CSU, has racked-up a successful record in helping keep students clean and in school.

Our Drug Court system is making a difference all across our Nation. In fact, a 2002 report issued by Columbia University's prestigious National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse states that "Drug Courts provide closer, more comprehensive supervision and much more frequent drug testing and monitoring during the program, than other forms of community supervision." The report underscores that "drug use and criminal behavior are substantially reduced while offenders are participating in drug court" and that "criminal behavior is lower after participation, especially for graduates."

Our Nation's Drug Court system is a good example of a viable and productive partnership between the Federal Government our State governments and local jurisdictions. Their collaboration is making a positive impact all across our country. I want to take this moment to thank the people of the OJP, the experts at the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and the state and local judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers and other officials who have done so much to establish, build upon and continually improve our Nation's drug court system.

I also want to take a moment to thank Judge Karen Freeman Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals for her letter of support for the Campus CORT legislation I am introducing today. It is appreciated.