A former prosecutor turned judge talked about his own experiences with the Drug Court system at the Southwestern Regional Drug Court meeting and explained how he became a believer.

William Saddler said when he first heard about the Drug Court program as a hardboiled prosecutor, he sneered at the concept.

“I was a prosecutor and I thought, why would I be for this, I put people in jail,” he said. “But I went to a training in Florida and what I experienced there helped change my mind.”

At the training Saddler met a fellow hardnosed prosecutor from a community similar to his own.

“I could tell he was a good, tough prosecutor,” Saddler said. “He said he was tired of seeing the same ole people over and over again and he saw the Drug Court program make a difference.”

Saddler realized the best way to serve his community as prosecutor and later as judge wasn’t just locking people up. It was to get people who were committing crimes over drugs off drugs and away from the addiction-crime lifestyle so they could straighten their lives out and go straight.

“Anybody who thinks jail will turn these people around is not familiar with drug addiction,” Saddler noted, explaining that “Drug Court is not about cutting a break for druggies.”

“We have had a Drug Court in Mercer County for four years now,” Saddler said. “When we started, we were the second Drug Court in the Mountain State. We made some mistakes along the way at first and I want to help you so you don’t repeat our mistakes. ...We opened in January of 2005 and one mistake we made was that we wanted to get our numbers up fast. We got 50 people enrolled real quick. We soon realized some of them were just not suitable for this type of program.”

In fact, several belonged in regular probation, Saddler admitted.

“Drug Court should be utilized for people on their way to jail,” he said. “Why waste these resources on people who will get probation? It should be for people who will otherwise be locked up....This is a tough program and I think the community needs to understand it’s not an easy program.”

Saddler said many lawyers at first tried to get their clients into the program, but “that changed later because neither they nor their clients realized how tough Drug Court is. We become a part of their everyday life for two years.”

How tough is it?

“Nobody in our county graduated in 18 months,” he said. “Some were in it over two years. In fact, the only thing tougher to a drug addict than jail time is this program. We make them work and do community service, group therapy, frequent drug screenings...Severe guidelines and frequent testing are the keys to our success. We test at least three times a week.”

Saddler said users try to cheat all the time and have been caught using various over the counter formulas and devices and gizmos such as the Whizinator or plain old hoses filled with other people’s urine but get caught anyway.

“These people are addicts and they are gonna try to use drugs any way they can....They won’t quit overnight,” Saddler said. “But for the program to work the offender has to be honest. We expect them to have ups and downs along the way.”

Many offenders have other problems besides drugs including mental health issues, dysfunctional families or lack of social skills or have small children or live in substandard housing. Saddler said those issues are addressed as is the need for them to stay away from other people who abuse drugs or the areas frequented by drug abusers.

“You have to have a system to keep an eye on these people when they are not around you,” he said. “We do that with law enforcement.”

In Mercer County the West Virginia State Police often show up at a Drug Court client’s house unexpectedly. The Home Confinement office also plays a part in Mercer’s Drug Court and is involved with the treatment teams.

Participants in the program have to stay away from each other outside of counseling and classes as the program has a strict no fraternization policy.

“When people with the problem of drug addiction get around each other, they drag each other down, they don’t lift each other up,” Saddler noted. “These people are addicts and addicts want to socialize with other addicts. That’s a problem.”

Saddler gave as an example one slacker who overslept and decided to take the whole day off.

“So I put him in jail for a week where they woke him up early every day,” Saddler quipped, noting that other offenders would rather sit in jail and do nothing than to be forced to get up at 7 a.m. and clean up trash from the side of the road.

“We punish them in my county by sending them to the dump to sort out the trash,” he said.

Saddler advised Drug Court judges to “not be afraid of sending people to jail” when they mess up.

“We have 40 people in our program who are in jail right now,” he explained. “Drug Court is not a get out of jail free program or a hug a thug program. It’s rough. We have had some people who opted out of it and asked to be sent back to jail.”