AGENDA #5g
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Status Report on Project Turn Around
DATE: February 28, 2000
This report is presented in response to a question from a Council Member at the January 31, 2000 meeting.
Project Turn Around is a court program meant to divert first-time, non-violent drug offenders from a cycle of drugs and crime. The goal of the Project is early intervention to enable drug offenders to overcome drug-dependent lifestyles and to contribute to the community in a positive manner. This is accomplished by providing program participants with intensive supervision. Participants are required to pay program fees, be employed or in school, support themselves and any dependents, participate in drug counseling, have no further criminal charges, and be drug-free. At successful completion of the program, which lasts from six months for misdemeanor offenses to twelve months for felony offenses, the court charges are dismissed.
In response to an increasing local drug problem and an absence of early intervention programs for drug offenders, Project Turn Around was implemented in the Chapel Hill Police Department in 1993 with a Governor’s Crime Commission two-year grant and 25% matching funds from the Town. Since 1996 Orange County has contributed approximately half the cost of the program. In 1998 Chatham County received a grant from the Governor’s Crime Commission to hire a person to expand Project Turn Around to the entire 15-B Judicial District (Orange and Chatham Counties). The Chatham County program is now funded through a Governor’s Crime Commission grant with matching funds from Chatham County.
Project Turn Around is highly respected by the entire legal system and has been successful with the targeted population. It costs Project Turn Around less than $520 per participant (in contrast to the $20,000+ annual figure to house a prisoner in North Carolina). The Program has a successful completion rate of 70% and a recidivism rate of less than 2%.
Six months ago the District Attorney and Project Turn Around executed an agreement to have Project Turn Around screen all first-time drug offenders in the judicial district. This agreement has resulted in a 285% increase from the first and second quarter in people entering the program in Orange County.
TOTAL # of clients: 192 screened; 172 enrolled
n Gender: 78% male; 22% female
n Race: 67% Caucasian; 31% African American; 2% other
n Age: 16-17(18%); 18-21(36%); 22-39(36%); 40+(10%)
n Marital Status: 74% single
n Education: 46% have not completed high school
n Income: 69% have household income below $12,000/year
n Residency: 46% Chapel Hill residents; 12% Carrboro; 19% northern Orange County; 13% Durham County; 10% other
n Substance of Abuse: 56% marijuana; 32% alcohol; 12% hard drugs or combination of drugs