Unintended Consequence: How Prop 47 tanks drug courts [SCPR.org]

On a typical day in Judge Matt Anderson’s Newport Beach courtroom, the room is packed — but mostly with visitors. Drug courts attract academics, treatment professionals and journalists — curious about its effectiveness.

But lately, the courts lack actual participants: 

"The number of people being evaluated for the program is dropping," Anderson says.

Before Proposition 47, Orange County would see between 50 to 80 applications for drug court every month. In the roughly three months since the initiative passed, the county's drug courts received just 12 applications. In Los Angeles County, new admissions dropped 50 percent.

In fact, since the initiative went into effect, the number of people in drug courts in California has plummeted.

[For more of this story, written by Rina Palta, go to http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/...-47-tanks-drug-cour/]