San Bernardino Drug Court Keeps People out of Jail

Deborah Cima is the Treatment Court Coordinator for the San Bernardino Drug Court. (Photo: Bobbi Albano)

In 1994, the City of San Bernardino started what was then a novel experiment. Instead of sending people arrested for drug offenses through the court system, San Bernardino started a Drug Court. As we've noted here previously, Drug Court is a drug-intervention program administered through the court system to divert defendants from jail and into drug treatment and rehabilitation.

Deborah Cima is the Treatment Court Coordinator for the San Bernardino Drug Court [PDF] and has 14 years of experience in the criminal justice field. Today, she plays a significant role in the success of the San Bernardino Drug Court Program.

Cima began working with kids between the ages of eight and 18 when she first began her career in social work. "In the late 80s, I was the director for a group home for kids who were severely emotionally disturbed," Cima said. Shortly thereafter, Cima accepted a position with the Department of Behavioral Health for the County of San Bernardino as a contract monitor. In that role, she visited the drug and alcohol program providers to make sure they were meeting the terms of their County contracts. This was her first real introduction to drug and alcohol treatment programs and her experiences with providers were very moving.

"The providers I monitored had a very personal reason why they provided services. They were personally driven to give back to the community in ways that others could not understand." Cima was inspired.

In 1994, Superior Court judge Patrick Morris began the Drug Court program, partnering with the San Bernardino County Probation Department and Mental Health Systems, Inc.

Morris asked Cima to work with him as a program coordinator to develop the Drug Court and take on a job no one had done before. At that time, there were no other drug courts in California. Cima was instantly attracted to this new program.  Again, she was inspired, this time by Morris, and his vision to do something outside of the box. "The fact that a judge, district attorney or probation officer encouraged participants to get sober and change their lives was very different," Cima observed.

Cima has increased the funding of the drug court program ten-fold since its inception by regularly applying for grants, thus growing it from just one drug court in the city of San Bernardino to a total of 22 county-wide.

San Bernardino Drug Court has also become one of the first seven Mentor Courts in the nation.  Drug Court staffers have trained professionals across the country in implementing drug courts and mental health courts in their own communities.

Only non-violent felons are eligible for the program. If accepted, they receive five days of treatment per week for 18 months in a Drug Court contracted drug and alcohol program. These felons have to prove they are serious about staying clean and sober. The program requires drug testing at least three times each week, attendance in court once a week, payment of a weekly $15 fee and attendance at self-help meetings. Once all the requirements are met, the offender is eligible to have his or her charges reduced or dismissed.

Savings from diverting offenders to Drug Court can be substantial. According to the California Association of Drug Court Professionals the annual cost of a year in prison for a convicted felon is $47,337. But, the annual cost of drug court per participant is $13,000, a savings of about $34,000 per participant, each year.

More than 7,000 people in San Bernardino have been through Drug Court in the past 15 years. More than half complete the program and go on to find full time employment or enroll in school.

A two-year post completion recidivism study shows that of Drug Court graduates, less than 18 percent re-offend.  But for those who do not choose drug court, 67 percent re-offend. Drug Court appears to be a true win-win for participants specifically and society as a whole.  Cima calls drug court "a complimentary system of blending accountability with treatment."