Mineral County DUI/Drug court to shut its doors in May

Since 2006, 90 people have gone through the Mineral County DUI/Drug Court Program with 54 of them graduating to what one graduate called “a second chance at life.”

However due to what Mineral County Justice of the Peace Wanda James calls “a lack of clientele” the program will be suspended after three enrollees graduate on May 22.

“Last year we had approximately 40 DUIs in the county but 90 percent of them are from out of state,” Judge James said. “We are supervising some felony DUIs but to spend the money, the money is so specific it is only on DUI offenses, we can’t really require someone that lives in Washington to come here every week for DUI court. We don’t have the population for it.”

Judge James added that if there once again becomes a need for the program she would reapply for the grant funding to start the program back up.

“I would even start it up without the money,” James said. “We would just go until we got the money to underwrite it.”

The Mineral County DUI/Drug Court was awarded a grant in Sept. of 2007 from the Office of the Supreme Court Administration for $61,021 for the 2009 biennium to go towards costs of personnel and operations for the Drug Treatment Court.

Since then the county has received $135,110 from the office to continue the program.

In 2011, the county was awarded a $75,620 grant from the Montana Department of Transportation to implement a DUI Court. 2012 saw the amount raised to $80,000 and the funds from both grants were administered through the town of Superior.

According to Judge James, continuing to receive grant funds when they will not be completely utilized is a primary reason why she chose to suspend the program.

“Right now we don’t have the population to sustain it so if I took their money I wouldn’t spend all of it,” Judge James said.

“I think last year we gave a little back, this year we will give a little back too. But it’s not fair to ask for the money when other courts in the state could use it and we are getting the allocation but don’t have the population to sustain it.”

Judge James added that “there is nothing to say” the program can’t be started up again if the need arises.

“We have a fabulous team and everything in place but you don’t want to take up that money if you aren’t going to utilize it,” Judge James said. “We can always apply again and they have been very generous with us.”

There is also a silver lining to the end of the treatment court – the lack of a population in need of the program could show that DUIs among county residents is down.

“The highest percentage of our DUIs that go down the 78 miles of interstate are from out of state,” Judge James said. “ If they were local offenders we would be more than glad to handle them. Considering we incorporate Alberton, Superior, St. Regis and the West End – maybe it’s a good thing (the lack of local offenders). Maybe it’s saying the total DUIs could possibly be down.”

Judge James said she would miss the program and that it was a “very tough” decision to suspend it after the May graduations.

“I feel very sad in some respects because I am very invested in it and passionate about it,” Judge James said. “It’s not an easy decision for me to make and in a perfect world I would never do that because I feel so strongly about it. But I am also a practical person and sometimes you have to make tough decisions.”