TROY – Many drug crime defendants who would have headed to Rensselaer County Drug Treatment court for alternative sentencing that would have sent them to rehabilitation instead of prison ran into new road blocks when the opioid epidemic hit.

Their addiction had become so strong that when they were released from the Rensselaer County Jail they couldn’t make it the days or weeks before they appeared in drug court without running into more trouble.

“I found with our opioid-addicted population we would lose them. We would see them at the jail. We’d let them out to get into treatment and they would run,” County Court Judge Debra Young said.

Young runs Rensselaer County’s drug court, which is a coordinated multi-agency effort to end the cycle of drug use and crime that results. The defendant enters the drug court program under intense supervision, court monitoring and long-term treatment.

This approach was failing opioid users, though, and a new direction had to be taken. That’s where a three-year $300,000 federal Bureau of Judicial Assistance Grant through the state Office of Court Administration provided Young an opportunity to solve the problem.

“We needed a way to get them right from the jail into a very high level of care, kind of seamlessly, without that chance to take off," Young said of opioid addicts. “You have to issue a warrant. By the time you get them back, they’re worse off. When you get some clean time behind you when you get out of jail and you pick up again, that’s when you overdose.”

The grant was aimed at these high-risk, high-need individuals. Not only were they in need of intensive supervision and long-term care involving residential treatment, but they often faced drug charges across multiple counties. Before the grant money was awarded, the county didn’t have the resources to meet their needs.

The new source of funding allowed Young to hire Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC) to identify opioid users at the jail who could benefit from the new intensive drug court program. TASC assists in getting these defendants into treatment programs and securing the transportation to get them there from the jail and to court.

Defendants charged with violent crimes aren’t allowed to participate in the program.

Young is halfway through the three-year grant. The goal was to serve 10 people each year, targeting defendants who required a level of service the drug court alone couldn’t provide. So far, the program has evaluated 64 individuals and accepted 40. Young has seen one graduate from the treatment program and still has 39 enrolled.

“We’re getting them clean. We’re getting them sober. We’re getting them into the workforce,” Young said about the goals for the program.

It will take an opioid-addicted defendant about 18 to 24 months to proceed through the Rensselaer County program, Young said. During that time, they’ll receive intense scrutiny and drug testing as well as the support services.

Young had seen an increase in the number of opioid-using defendants as the opioid epidemic has grown not only in the county and state, but across the nation. The Third Judicial District administration backed Young’s application for the federal funds. It was the judge’s first effort in writing a grant.

“Unfortunately, we’re like about every place in the Northeast. We have a large, growing addicted population,” said State Supreme Court Justice Thomas A. Breslin, the Third Judicial District administrative judge.

The cost savings per defendant is enormous, Breslin said. The yearly cost per participant is $4,000 to $5,000 if they’re in the drug treatment court program compared to the $60,000-plus the state spends to incarcerate a prisoner, the administrative judge said.

“Even to conservatives, it makes business sense,” Breslin said about the savings.

The Third Judicial District would like to expand the program in Rensselaer County into the other drug courts, Breslin said. The district includes Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster counties.