AUGUSTA, Maine — Recovery behind bars is generally the only option for people in Aroostook County with substance use disorder who commit drug-related crimes. Despite the highly touted success of drug treatment courts in other Maine locations, Aroostook County is the last remaining judicial jurisdiction without one.
But that may soon change.
On Wednesday, the Maine Legislative Judiciary Committee voted in support of making substance use disorder treatment programs like drug court, available throughout the state and accessible to residents in rural areas.
The committee’s unanimous vote on an amended version of LD 1596, An Act to Facilitate the Creation of an Aroostook County Drug Treatment Court, will move on to the House and Senate for approval. Legislative approval demonstrates support and opens the door for potential future funding.
The actual drug court must be approved by the chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Once approved, funding must be secured. Until all the pieces are in place, officials cannot say when the court will be up and running.
“Not having a drug court in the county has always been a resource problem,” Aroostook County District Attorney Todd Collins said. “Not that there isn’t a need, and not that there isn’t a will, but where do you get the resources for yet another thing when you are already stretched.”
Drug treatment courts, known in Maine as specialty dockets, offer an alternative to jail for people with substance use disorder. Applicants must go through a screening process and plead guilty to their alleged crimes.
Once admitted into treatment court, participants are required to meet with the presiding judge regularly, maintain weekly case manager and probation contact, stay employed, pay fines, remain sober and submit to random drug testing, according to guidelines.
There are currently six adult treatment drug courts in Maine. They are located in Androscoggin, Cumberland, Oxford, Penobscot, Washington and York counties.
To make sure Aroostook County is added to the list, a development committee, including Collins, has been working since last summer to file an application later this month with the Maine judiciary to get a treatment court up and running in the County this year.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Collins told the Judiciary Committee that the Aroostook County application is 85 percent completed and that after a Wednesday meeting of the committee he expects it to be 95 percent complete.
The goal is to cover the entire county, 6,671 square miles, which has always been a challenge, Collins said.
The development committee is asking to have one drug court, separated into two areas the same way there is one superior court in two locations that cover the full county, Collins said. One drug court area would be Caribou north to Fort Kent and one would be Presque Isle south to Houlton.
In 2021, Gov. Janet Mills’ opioid action plan recommended adding drug courts on the midcoast and in Aroostook County during 2022. The midcoast court, serving Knox, Waldo, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties was created through a department of justice grant.
In 2022, the Maine Judicial Branch was awarded $1.1 million from the U.S. Department of Justice to establish and run adult drug treatment courts in Judicial Regions 3, Oxford and Franklin counties, and Region 6, Lincoln, Knox, Waldo, and Sagadahoc counties.
These grant funds allowed the Maine Judicial Branch to operate adult drug treatment courts in 15 of the 16 counties in Maine, according to a 2022 j udicial branch release.
Last legislative session, Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, reached out to Collins asking him why there was no drug court in the County and asked him what they needed, Collins said.
While he was not completely certain what it would require, Collins knew he would need a half-time Assistant District Attorney and a judge working 20 percent of the time for treatment court.
Jackson then proposed legislation to establish an adult drug treatment court in Aroostook County. The Judiciary Committee heard testimony on the issue and it was later referred to the development committee.
“If we are serious about combating the opioid epidemic and helping Mainers get their lives back on track, we need to use every tool available,” Jackson said last week. “Treatment and recovery courts have proven to be a critical tool for families and communities all across the state.”
When Jackson put the bill forward it got things moving and started the conversation, according to Collins. But the conversation revealed the complexity of starting a drug court.
“Other agencies started saying ‘that‘s not all you need. You need service providers, two new counselors in the area dedicated to the program and it turns out you need case managers and then you need dedicated attorneys,” Collins said. “The conversation started identifying stakeholders and necessary resources to get a handle on how it might theoretically work in a county the size of Connecticut.”
The development committee is made up of probation officers, representatives from law enforcement and the district attorney’s office, treatment providers, pretrial services, and agencies from the governor’s office to behavioral services.
There are a lot of moving parts to it, Collins said.
“We had to learn from scratch how to make it happen and we went through all the problems and scenario building and that takes time,” he said. “Geography has always been a problem. But technology and Zoom can be part of the solution. “
Once the development committee submits the application for judicial review, specialty docket administrative staff review it before submitting it to the court administrator and chief justices for review and authorization, said Todd Crawford, coordinator of specialty dockets.
In Maine, there is presently no single direct funding for all of the treatment courts.
“We rely on some funding through Judicial and Executive departments, various grants, support from departments and agencies,” said Crawford, referring to Maine Pretrial Services, Maine DOC, County Prosecutors, State Attorney General’s Office, and some county sheriff’s offices.
According to Collins, funding for the assistant district attorney comes from legislative appropriation and the County earmarks support staff money.
Collins said the greatest success would be if they could get to the point of not needing drug court. It is an end of the line solution, not a front of the line solution, he said.
“There is a community ripple effect,” Collins said. “When you have a rural county like Aroostook, it’s really hard to absorb the losses from people who die or are in the throes of substance use disorder. It’s hard for them to work, hard for them to be productive. If we can get those people back into the community so they are productive, it bears more fruit. And most significant if we can prevent somebody from dying of overdose.”
