NCJ Number
146969
Journal
Criminal Law Bulletin Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: (January-February 1994) Pages: 30-53
Date Published
1994
Length
24 pages
Annotation
The drug court concept in New Jersey is discussed.
Abstract
Judge George Nicola, presiding judge of the Middlesex County (New Jersey) Criminal Courts, was chosen to head a pilot program of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) designed to develop and test creative models of case processing techniques. The program, known as Differentiated Case Management/Early Disposition Case Management (DCM/EDCM), was to be tested in three sites, funded by federal grants. The New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts received a $190,000 grant from DOJ's Bureau of Justice Assistance, $134,000 of which was specifically allocated to the Middlesex County EDCM. Beginning in January 1990, the EDCM court, directed by Judge Nicola, operated on three tracks: Track A--all drug cases with mandatory presumptive incarceration or a high probability of incarceration, with a disposition within 90 days; Track B-- all cases without mandatory sentences and where the defendants were unlikely to receive long custodial sentences, with a disposition of 30 days from arrest; Track C--Track B cases that could not be negotiated and would have been indicted by the grand jury and set for trial, with a disposition of 90 days. Track B contained a community treatment component. Results of this EDCM program for 1990 (compiled by the Jefferson Institute for Justice Studies), the only year in which Judge Nicola was its director, included, inter alia, a significant reduction of the overall length of disposition and a sizeable reduction in the time between case initiation and charging, case initiation and grand jury, charging and final disposition, and grand jury and disposition. Problems cited as limiting the success of the program include burn-out of Judge Nicola; insufficient program planning causing the project to expand too quickly and attempt to accomplish too much too soon; inadequate administrative support caused by reliance on volunteers with no administrative support structure and failure to add courtroom workgroup resources, i.e., judges, court clerks, or other personnel; management and operational deficiencies; and failure to develop institutional supports that would facilitate the transfer of leadership. Due to a dispute between the Administrative Office of the Courts concerning the elimination of the Track B treatment component and an expansion of the adjudicative phase of the program, Judge Nicola resigned from the project after the first year. After less than a year under new leadership, the Middlesex County drug court was abandoned. In spite of its problems and eventual demise, the article concludes that the Middlesex County EDCM program remains a model for the rest of the country, successfully combining judicial, prosecution, and defense services.