STURGIS - The Northern Hills Drug Court, the first of its kind in the state, begins Tuesday, offering people charged with drug-related felonies an option other than doing time in prison.

Drug court coordinator Cristi Habermann is pleased that the program is beginning.

"Everybody working together is why this will work," Habermann said.

The state legislature passed a bill during the 2007 session to establish drug court in the 4th Circuit, which includes Meade, Lawrence, Butte, Corson, Dewey, Harding, Perkins and Ziebach counties. Fourth Circuit Judge Jerome Eckrich went to the legislature asking that Drug Court be established.

People whose crimes and background fit the criteria for drug court are given the option to go through drug court rather than serve prison time.

They must be at least 18 years old, the charge has to be a felony drug charge or a crime substantially related to drug addiction and the crime must involve a controlled substance, in other words, drugs other than alcohol and marijuana.

The program is designed primarily for battling the state's methamphetamine problems.

Habermann said participants must live within 40 miles of Sturgis to receive treatment and be in the program, but Drug Court will assist them in finding housing nearby if they do not live that close.

Participants can be recommended to Drug Court by prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges or probation officers.

"The incentive for the person coming into the program is they're going to be able to stay in their community," Habermann said. "But they're going to be, as I call it, micro-managed."

That means intense supervision.

Drug court participants are screened for drugs every 72 hours because, Habermann said, all controlled substances stay in the body for at least that long.

Habermann said the program is like treatment, but because it is run by the court system, it has authority treatment programs do not.

"We get to make the kind of decisions treatment doesn't have the option to make," she said.

For Drug Court to work, prosecutors, defense attorneys, Drug Court officials, treatment officers and court services officers meet with the defendant to agree on appropriate treatment and requirements.

"The unique thing about drug court is no one leaves the table until everyone agrees," Habermann said.

Habermann, who has a background in substance-abuse counseling as well as mental health counseling, said Drug Court is more effective than prison time for some people because they can work, provide for themselves and their families and learn to cope with daily stresses without turning to drugs.

"And we're giving them the support and teaching them how to do that here," she said.

Contact Katie Brown at 394-8318 or katie.brown@rapidcityjournal.com