Fulton County Superior Court - Atlanta - Georgia

Hope Hall Accountability Center
1135-A Jefferson Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
(404) 612-2400

In 1997, Fulton County's Felony Drug Court opened to give non-violent, drug-dependent felony defendants the opportunity to avoid jail time if they successfully completed an intensive drug-treatment program.

Drug Court clients must "pass" a 9-24 month program, that requires them to report to Hope Hall, Superior Court's outpatient treatment facility.

Each client undergoes random and scheduled drug testing every week. During their time in Drug Court clients also make regular appearances in court before a Superior Court Judge who monitors their progress.

In 2006, a study of all Drug Court graduates revealed that only 31 percent had been convicted of a subsequent offense.

In 2007, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners allocated additional funds to increase the capacity of the Drug Court which currently is supervising nearly 400 participants.

Drug Court graduates typically have a job, a stable environment to return to, or to start over in, and are no longer a drain on the taxpayers of Fulton County. As productive and stabilized citizens, they pay taxes and have typically become motivated to continue their education.

Drug Court is a non-traditional program for felony offenders addicted to alcohol and/or drugs. It is an accountability alternative to the typical adversarial approach employed with offenders and involves the District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender, Probation and treatment and community groups working together for the benefit of the offenders and the community at large. Offenders participating in Drug Court have their charges dismissed upon graduation from the program, or they may avoid jail time through successful completion of the program.

To graduate from Drug Court offenders are required to adhere to a rigorous set of rules governing their behavior for a minimum of 18 months. During this time, offenders are required to actively participate in an intensive out-patient rehabilitation program operated by the Drug Court staff or to participate in some other court-approved treatment program. They are also required to appear regularly before a Judge to review their progress and to provide urine samples for random drug screening.

The program is divided into six phases of three months duration each.

Most participants begin the program by reporting to the in-house treatment program four days per week. As they progress through the phases, their mandatory reporting requirements decrease until they are reporting only twice per month during the aftercare portion of the program.In addition to drug and alcohol intervention services Drug Court provides assistance in other areas such as employment readiness, education remediation, an in-house GED readiness program and housing assistance for homeless offenders.

To graduate from the program, defendants must refrain from using drugs and/or alcohol for a minimum of six months, be employed or enrolled in school full-time, pay a program participation fee of $750 and successfully complete all requirements of the treatment program.

Client Profile and Services

 • Most program participants have multiple felony convictions, including charges that would make them ineligible for participation in any other drug court in Georgia. Fulton County’s drug court accepts offenders who have weapons offenses, residential burglary charges and other offenses which would result in a defendant being deemed ineligible by most drug courts nationwide.

• The typical client is: an African-American male who has not completed high school, is unemployed and who has been using crack cocaine for at least ten years. 

• Approximately 40 percent of program participants are either homeless or effectively homeless, meaning that they reside in an environment where they are surrounded by drug use and criminal activity.

• Women comprise 15 percent of the clients and special programming is offered them to address their unique issues.

• Dually-diagnosed individuals are served by this program and they comprise more than 18 percent of clients.  These are people who have some type of cognitive or emotional disorder and are typically thought of as being mentally unstable. They often are barred from drug court participation in other jurisdictions.

• Clients receive cognitive rehabilitation services through Thinking for a Change, a nationally-recognized program that focuses on changing the manner in which participants process information so they will make better choices that enable them to become productive, tax-paying citizens.

• Ancillary services include job skills training, G.E.D. preparation, anger management, budgeting and consumer services, AA/NA participation and groups led by alumni of the program.

Mental Health Court

Mental illness increases the cost of the legal process. Without treatment and supervision some mentally ill defendants simply can’t safely be released, creating a disproportionate drain on the justice system.

Nationwide, 16 percent of jail detainees are mentally ill. But, at the Fulton County Jail, this figure is 24 percent, approximately 50 percent above the national average. Currently, one-third of all defendants housed in the Fulton County Jail receive some type of psychotropic medication and more than 75 percent test positive for illegal drugs upon arrival (or refuse to take the test).

These numbers make the Fulton County Jail the largest de facto mental health facility in Georgia with half of the jail’s 2,000-plus detainees receiving some type of mental health services.

To address this large number of detainees who cannot be released because of mental illness, the Superior Court of Fulton County began a pilot Mental Health Court in the last quarter of 2006.  Using existing staff and resources the Court has been able to supervise 45 mentally ill offenders. Collectively, these offenders had already been arrested more than 800 times with one third of them having a criminal history which included spending time in prison.

Fulton’s Mental Health Court is effective in dealing with the problem of recurring arrests of individuals diagnosed with mental illness. It also reduced the jail population and strengthened our existing Drug Court program by providing additional resources needed by Drug Court participants who have mental illnesses.

 In 2008, Fulton County’s Department of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases (MHDDAD) agreed to take responsibility for all therapeutic portions of the program while the Court maintains responsibility for compliance monitoring, quality control and oversight over the program.

This partnership will allow expansion of the Mental Health Court further reducing the costs of recurring arrest of offenders with mental illnesses. 

For information on Fulton County’s Mental Health Court please contact: 
Brenda Ernest, Mental Health Court Coordinator:     404-612-7763

Read the research:

Looking at a Decade of Drug Courts
1989-1998
Prepared by the Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project
A Program of the Drug Courts Program Office, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice
http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/bja/decade98.htm

Do Drug Courts Work?
Findings From Drug Court Research
Lower recidivism. Using retrospective data, researchers in several studies found that drug courts reduced recidivism among program participants in contrast to comparable probationers.
Lower costs. Compared to traditional criminal justice system processing, treatment and other investment costs averaged $1,392 lower per drug court participant.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/topics/courts/drug-courts/work.htm