This Court’s holding leaves open some interesting issues about the breadth of the eligibility changes that accompanied the changes in the Drug Court statute and Manual. In the rare cases where defendant’s get probation for No Early Release Act “violent offenses” for which the Drug Court statute prohibits drug court acceptance, could defendants be accepted so long as it was through a violation of probation? It seems counter-intuitive that they could get in to drug court after violating probation when they could not get in if they initially applied for drug court special probation. On the other hand, the Court’s opinion implies that a probation violation at the start of a probationary term would make the applicant more amenable to drug court than someone who did well on probation for years and only slipped up and needed drug court as an alternative to incarceration towards the end of their probationary term. It seems counter-intuitive under the circumstances to reward someone who never did well on probation while punishing someone who did well for an extended period.
Drug Court eligibility remains filled with anomalies. For example, our courts have long recognized that someone who “overcomes their addiction” after their offense but before drug court acceptance is not clinically appropriate for drug court. This seems counterintuitive because it not only punished those who take the initiative in treating their addiction, but it undermines a core drug court message: battling addiction is a “life-long” process.