Ira reports from Glynn County Georgia on Superior Court Judge Amanda
Williams and how she runs the drug courts in Glynn, Camden and Wayne
counties. We hear the story of Lindsey Dills, who forges two checks on her
parents' checking account when she's 17, one for $40 and one for $60, and
ends up in drug court for five and a half years, including 14 months behind
bars, and then she serves another five years after that—six months of it
in Arrendale State Prison, the other four and a half on probation. The
average drug court program in the U.S. lasts 15 months. But one main way
that Judge Williams' drug court is different from most is how punitive it
is. Such long jail sentences are contrary to the philosophy of drug court,
as well as the guidelines of the National Association of Drug Court
Professionals. For violating drug court rules, Lindsey not only does jail
terms of 51 days, 90 days and 104 days, Judge Williams sends her on what she
calls an "indefinite sentence," where she did not specify when Lindsey would
get out. (30 minutes)