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 |  Location of Staten Island Treatment Court. Staten Island New York, United States of America |
 | Outpatient drug rehab 475 Seaview Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Outpatient drug rehab 375 Seguine Avenue New York, United States of America |
 | 1688 Victory Boulevard New York, United States of America |
 | 263 Port Richmond Avenue New York, United States of America |
| 56 Bay Street New York, United States of America |
| 14 Slosson Terace New York, United States of America |
| 1915 Forest Avenue New York, United States of America |
| 201 Forest Avenue New York, United States of America |
| 444 Saint Marks Place New York, United States of America |
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A permanent fix takes a multi-faceted approach. Heroin addiction has become rampant on Staten Island because people that were using prescription pain medication no longer had access to pills or built a tolerance. Efforts have been made to end fatal drug use in Staten Island by District Attorneys and through the Staten Island Treatment Court. Substance abuse treatment is a better response to drug use than incarceration. Although jail is a form of rehabilitation it does not combat addiction effectively. While legislators, judges, and other public officials cannot eradicate heroin themselves. They can help their communities by allowing people go to drug rehabilitation and advocating for the resources that allow them to do so.
Rehabilitation offered by the court tries to help Staten Islanders. Someone charged with a drug-related offense may qualify for a treatment program. According to the Drug Court Initiative Annual Report 2015, “In March 2002, the Staten Island Treatment Court (SITC) opened in Richmond County as an alternative to incarceration for drug-abusing felony offenders.” 1 The concept for drug treatment courts in New York State came from Miami’s efforts to end recidivism. If someone goes to jail addicted and gets no drug rehabilitation when they get out of jail they will still be addicted. Since they are still addicted, they may repeat the offense. In order to end this cycle there needs to be treatment for their addiction. The Drug Treatment Courts are a part of New York’s Problem-Solving Courts. The treatment courts are a collaborative effort from the defense, prosecution, rehabilitation site, addiction education, and law enforcement. In order to accommodate the needs of their populace, all of the drug courts are locally based. This enables them to respond to the needs of each community. As of 2015, 2,529 defendants have been referred to Treatment Court in Staten Island. In Treatment Court a defendant can plea that if they graduate from a drug treatment program their charges will be dismissed. Despite rehabilitation efforts by the courts, there are still other problems that plague the program.
Underfunding and people with no intent to stop using drugs hinder the success of the program. Upon failure of graduation from a treatment program defendants are incarcerated. Since failure from the program results in jail time, judges and defense attorneys urge the defendants not to take the plea unless they are serious about getting clean. If a defendant does not want to stop using drugs, the defense attorney would try to get a different plea for them. The suggestion not to take the treatment unless they are serious also comes from the judges’ knowledge that the programs are underfunded and overcrowded. Only allowing people serious about becoming sober into the programs could also lead to a higher success rate. Sometimes, after defendants take a plea for a treatment program they have to wait in jail for a couple of weeks until a spot opens in the rehabilitation facility. In Treatment Court, “1,057 (41%) have taken a plea and opted for treatment. Of the 1,472 who did not take the plea, 447 (30%) refused to participate.” 2. Most of the people that enter rehabilitation programs graduate and their charges are dropped. However, less than a quarter of people in the program did not graduate. Among the people that failed to complete the program, “37% of the failures were involuntary, 41% of failures were voluntary and 22% were deemed inactive.” 3 The failures of the program include people that failed their drug tests and were arrested again before graduating the program. 8% of defendants that applied for a drug rehabilitation program were deemed ineligible by the District Attorney’s office. One could be deemed ineligible because they were admitted in the program on other occasions and failed to graduate. People should not take the plea unless they want to become sober, but people with one misstep should not be exempt from receiving treatment in the future.
The rehabilitation programs yield long term positive results for the people that graduate. The most recent report published in 2015 shows that 73% of people in the programs graduated. Since the inception of the program, among the people that graduated, “61% of graduates were either full or part time employed… 23% … were either in school, full or part-time and, 10% …received vocational training.” 4 More funding should be allocated towards these programs because it causes a ripple effect in communities. By putting a drug free person back into their neighborhood they can work more efficiently and give back to their community. People can become more productive members of the society by sobering up through the court.
Different Districts Attorney have different approaches to drug treatment through the courts. The previous District Attorney, Dan Donovan, and the current District Attorney Michael McMahon both accepted rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration. When Donovan was District Attorney he tried to fight the prescription drug crisis. One point of his strategy was to focus on rehabilitation. He continues to try to fight substance abuse issues in Congress by trying to pass comprehensive opioid legislation. Donavan advocated for the 21st Century Cures Act. The bill included, “$1 billion in grants to be awarded to organizations that provide opioid addiction prevention and treatment.” 5 Although the bill does not have a certain amount of money set aside for funding in New York, it will still be beneficial for the communities that receive the funding. Before him, District Attorney William Murphy was in office for over twenty years. He was in office when Staten Island Treatment Court was established so, he saw treatment being put in place. District Attorney McMahon allocates more money towards treatment programs so more defendants are able to enter them than Congressman Donovan did.
District Attorney McMahon started the HOPE program in an attempt to combat substance abuse. Someone arrested for a drug related offense can receive treatment if they want it. Upon completion of treatment, they will have no record. Frank Donnelly from Staten Island Live describes the Heroin Overdose Prevention & Education program as, “a groundbreaking new initiative designed to combat the borough’s heroin and opioid scourge.” 6 McMahon explained heroin use on Staten Island as, “an epidemic that’s become a plague.” 7 The Drug Court Initiative Annual Report- 2015 states that, “Heroin was the primary drug of choice” among offenders that sought treatment through the courts. 8 However, McMahon said that although some people think of Staten Island as “Heroin Island”, he sees it as an “Island of Hope.” 9 If someone relapses after graduating the program and is charged with a “low-level drug-possession”, that does not “automatically disqualify him or her from entering it again.” 10 That part of the program troubled Assemblyman Ronald Castorina slightly because even though he supports HOPE he does not want repeat offenders to avoid jail by abusing programs in place. The chance Castorina’s fears may come to fruition does not eclipse the benefits of the program.
It seems that District Attorney McMahon’s allocation of more funds to court rehabilitation would positively impact the community. However, this past year over 100 people have overdosed in Staten Island. A reason for this is most overdoses do not happen out in the open they occur in homes. John Surico from Vice News asks McMahon where it is on the island and he replies that it is not one specific neighborhood, it is everywhere. McMahon said, “It used to be in the shadows: under train stations, or in dark alleys, and in sort of suspect neighborhoods. But now, the people are overdosing in their own bedrooms, their own homes, in cars, in diners, in restaurants, in parking lots. So it’s sort of come into more mainstream, in terms of location, which is just a shocking development.”11 In addition to HOPE, McMahon implemented the Overdose Response Initiative. Before ORI overdose deaths would be treated as accidental so there would be no investigation to find who the dealer was. McMahon says, “Now a file is open on each overdose death, and for some of the naloxone [overdose-reversing drug] saves.” 12 But still, if an overdose takes place in a hospital and they die there, there may not be a record due to doctor-patient privacy. McMahon thinks, “there’s probably 30 percent more (deaths) that we don’t know about.” 13 Beyond McMahon’s efforts through his various programs, he believes that prevention and drug addiction curriculums should be taught. If people learn to stay away from drugs early in their lives there is a better chance that they will not use them. For people that are already addicted, they can learn how to prevent an overdose and how to treat an overdose. Ideally, people would go to rehabilitation but not everyone can do that. Addicts that cannot go to rehabilitation should be as safe as they can while using drugs. In a borough where the drug overdose rate is so high, education is a key first step.
Everyone has to address the roots of addiction and help people become clean and educated. Even if only one life is saved from increased funding for rehabilitation it is a success. It brings down the amount of people addicted to drugs and can contribute to the end of drug addiction and use on Staten Island. People know drug use is prevalent in Staten Island and think it is sad but most do not see anything they should do to if it does not affect them personally. However, Staten Island is not the world. Threats of cuts persist at the federal level under an impending health care bill that would leave it up to states to decide if they want to cover drug treatment. Some people look at addicts as burdens on society, but empathy and advocacy are imperative for the health of Staten Islanders and Americans as a whole.
Notes
- Edwards, Darren, and Tara Begley. “Criminal Court of the City of New York Drug Court Initiative 2015 Annual Report.” July 2016. 20.
- Shapiro, Rachel. “House passes bill funding $1B for opioid addiction.” SILive.com. November 30, 2016.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/house_passes_bill_funding_1b_f.html.
- Donnelly, Frank. “New HOPE program offers treatment instead of jail to Staten Islanders with drug problem.” SILive.com. February 15, 2017.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/02/new_hope_program_offers_treatm.html.
- Edwards, “Criminal Court of the City of New York Drug Court Initiative 2015 Annual Report”, 20.
- Donnelly, “New HOPE program offers treatment instead of jail to Staten Islanders with drug problem.”
- Surico, John. “How Did Heroin Overdoses Get So Common in New York City?” Vice. October 25, 2016. Accessed April 30, 2017. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/heroin-overdose-addiction-new-york-city-staten-island-michael-mcmahon-da.
Bibliography
Donnelly, Frank. “New HOPE program offers treatment instead of jail to Staten Islanders with drug problem.” SILive.com. February 15, 2017.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/02/new_hope_program_offers_treatm.html.
Edwards, Darren, and Tara Begley. “Criminal Court of the City of New York Drug Court Initiative 2015 Annual Report.” July 2016.
New York State Unified Court System. “Drug Treatment Courts.”5 Jan. 2017.https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/problem_solving/drugcourts/overview.shtml
Shapiro, Rachel. “House passes bill funding $1B for opioid addiction.” SILive.com. November 30,2016.http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/house_passes_bill_funding_1b_f.html.
Surico, John. “How Did Heroin Overdoses Get So Common in New York City?” Vice. October 25, 2016. Accessed April 23, 2017. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/heroin-overdose-addiction-new-york-city-staten-island-michael-mcmahon-da.
