Nearly everyone's life has been touched in some way by someone suffering from a drug or alcohol addiction.

Thanks to a treatment program implemented by Judge Ray Wheless of Collin County's 366th District Court, local courts, attorneys, probation officers and substance abuse experts are working together to help address the underlying cause of DWIs and drug offenses while holding offenders accountable for their actions.

"The most dangerous people in our county are drunk drivers. The average citizen in Collin County, the greater danger to them is a drunk driver," Wheless said. "We wanted to do something to get these people off the road, but to also help them overcome those addictions so they are not a threat to themselves."


Administered by the Collin County Court at Law No. 5, the four DWI/drug courts in Collin County target individuals who have been convicted of drug and/or alcohol charges and are at high risk to reoffend. The main goal of these problem-solving courts is to stop drunk driving by addressing substance abuse.

Wheless implemented Collin County's first drug court in 2005 as a county court at law judge. Seeing its success, he brought the program with him and introduced it at a felony level when he was appointed to the district court in 2009. To date, the program has produced approximately 200 graduates, with another class graduating next week, and a lower recidivism rate.

"In the past, Texas was like 'lock 'em up and throw away the key,' and they kept having to build bigger and bigger prisons, until the legislature wised and up said 'this is going nowhere,'" Wheless said. "With me personally, I kept seeing the same people coming back again and again and they weren't getting any better. After trying the same people three to four times, it seemed to me we needed to come up with a better plan to make our roads safer."

Because research proves that jail time hasn't kept up with the pace of new offenses, which has in turn led to overcrowding, the Texas Legislature mandated drug courts several years ago for areas with a population more than 200,000. If Collin County didn't comply with the legislature, Wheless said it could lose funding for its probation department, which is about $5 million. While the first drug courts were introduced as far back as 1988 in Florida, Wheless said Texas courts are finally starting to come around.

"The criminal justice system adopted it with much more zeal in the past several years," he said. "They realized if we're going to lock up everyone with drug and alcohol problems it's going to cost us a lot of money and doesn't actually solve the issue. Now we are completely on board as a way to stop the revolving door in our prisons."

The voluntary, post-conviction program is a rigorous one. Each week during the first 90 days, participants are required to attend three Alcoholics Anonymous classes and check in weekly with their court-appointed judge. Counseling sessions are also scheduled and the individual must call a hotline every day to see if they will be called in for drug and/or alcohol testing. The alcohol test can detect alcohol consumption up to the past 48 hours, Wheless said.

In some cases, participants are required to wear a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAMx bracelet for around-the-clock observation. The device is worn around the ankle continuously and can detect alcohol through perspiration. Linked to a phone line, the bracelet sends immediate notices when such traces are detected.

Incentives for participating in the program are probated fines and jail sentences and waived community service hours. An occupational drivers' license is also provided, the filing fee for such waived.

In addition, instead of paying an even heftier fine in Wheless' court, participants pay a $400 program fee that goes to a pool for those participants who can't afford it. That money, combined with the usual court costs, make the program a self-sufficient one as well, he said.

"This program doesn't cost taxpayers anything," Wheless said. "I've had the same budget with no extra money except for court costs. It's a totally self-supported, self-funded program. It pays for itself."

In some instances, the use of modern drugs like Campral or Vivitrol as a rehabilitative component of the program has proven to be successful for their ability to stop cravings associated with alcoholism.

"These medicines help people break through that cycle when they're having cravings and have been used here with great success," Wheless said. "We've had people who were hardcore drinkers in the program who reported (Vivatrol) is like a miracle drug. It's also used for opiate addiction."

Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis has been a strong proponent of the DWI/drug courts for their dual abilities to effectively rehabilitate and adequately reprove. His paramount interest being public safety, the chief prosecutor said he supports the program because, thanks to things like the daily call-ins and SCRAMx bracelets, infractions are caught even quicker. At the same time, he said, streets remain safer and families can stay together.

However, Willis said, not every DWI or drug conviction is suitable for a get-out-of- jail-free card.

"It brings more accountability to the person being supervised, which means more safety for our citizens," Willis said. "When someone goes to jail they don't get that treatment, and when they get out they have the same problems. This can address this. In some situations I will try to put them in jail as long as I can, but in other situations it's about keeping them more intensely supervised. It's not a one-size-fits-all."

Shannon White is a drug court treatment liaison for the program. White is also a licensed chemical dependence counselor for Life Management Resources, one of several counseling centers contracted by Collin County to provide the cognitive behavioral therapy aspect of the program's rehabilitation.

Treatment is based on an individual assessment that determines the nature and severity of the patient's addiction, White said. Although a lot of people opt for the treatment over the jail time, there is also a level of denial when it comes to living with addiction that must be broken during treatment.

"It's intimidating at first because there is so much required; they're intimidated by how it's going to fit. Obviously, drugs and alcohol took up a lot of their time," White said. "Most participants are incredibly grateful for the opportunity, though. You have to first get them to admit drinking has caused them a problem and work on that from there."

While people are most encouraged to participate in the court when faced with their only other alternative of incarceration, White hopes that people do not interpret it as the easy way out, but as a life-saving tool. Like Wheless, she hopes to see the program spread throughout Texas with as much success as it has had in Collin County.

"These courts are saving lives and keeping people out of prison, and that is the greatest gift," White said. "Collin County is willing to look at this as a disease and not as a punishable offense. These judges are the most compassionate people and they do not get paid any extra. Everyone here does it because they have passion for it. The sad truth is we need more of them."

For information on Collin County's DWI/Drug Court, visit www.collincountytx.gov or call 972-548-3850.