Drug program
targets child abusers

Judges believe family
drug court may break
vicious cycle of abuse

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

Hawaii judges have watched the link strengthen between drug abuse and child abuse.

In the past 10 years, child abuse cases have doubled in Family Court. About 90 percent involve substance abuse, with crystal methamphetamine or "ice" as the drug of choice.

But no extra judges have been added to handle the growing load.

Frustrated with the unending drug/child abuse cycle, judges are trying a new approach -- family drug court.

"We needed to do something else to be successful," said Judge Bode Uale, who shepherds the program. "We heard about the successes of Hawaii's drug court, and we saw other family drug court programs around the country that worked. We wanted to give it a shot."

The program targets child-abusing parents who are known to use drugs and/or alcohol but don't have a record. Parents will be chosen based on their willingness to seek treatment.

The incentive to parents: They get their kids back sooner. The incentive to judges: They stop the revolving door of drug and child abuse.

The $60,000 pilot program will pay for a court officer with social worker credentials to monitor parents' treatment and to report progress -- or relapse -- to Uale. Parents take regular drug tests and appear weekly or biweekly before the judge.

"We can feel the pulse of the case immediately," Uale said. "Months don't go by to find out parents have relapsed."

Judges blame the doubled caseload of child abuse on drugs.

"Drugs are our biggest problem, and ice is the scourge of our communities," Uale said. "We see it day in and day out. Drugs just exacerbate everything."

Family Court handled 952 child abuse cases in 1988. The amount doubled to 2,044 child abuse cases in 1997, Uale said. The courts don't keep statistics on parents' substance abuse. But Uale notes ice had just hit Hawaii in the late 1980s and has grown throughout the 1990s.

The dangerous thirst for ice

Parents will risk all for ice, said Judge John Bryant, head of Family Court's juvenile division.

"It's the worst drug for parents to be on. It's extremely addictive and causes violent tendencies," he said. "And the evidence seems to indicate long-term use of crystal meth causes brain damage."

Family Court modeled its pilot program after one of the country's most successful programs in Reno, Nev. Uale visited Judge Charles Magee's Nevada program last year and liked what he saw. Recovered parents came to court with their kids. The parents who relapsed from treatment went to jail on the spot.

"The message was if you're clean, sober and with your kids, life is beautiful. It looked like a wholesome, healing environment. They were recovered addicts who would leave the system better than when they entered it," Uale said. "The ones taken away didn't look good."

Family Court judges will watch drug-program cases much more closely than regular child abuse cases, which they review about every six months.

"But drugs is just a portion of this. Abuse is the other side," said Kenneth Ling, Family Court director. "Together it's a very volatile situation."

Parents must also attend anger-management classes.

Jail time's a weapon

Hawaii judges want to use jail time as another incentive to encourage addicted parents through treatment.

The Nevada program can send relapsing parents to jail. But Hawaii's Family Court judges don't have the authority and are working toward that goal, Uale said.

If a parent refuses to go through family drug court, "it gives us a red flag," Ling said. "Maybe the child shouldn't go home with them."