Howard County District Court to Honor Drug Court Graduates

(ELLICOTT CITY, Md. – December 6, 2005) Howard County District Court will host a ceremony for three new graduates of the court’s DUI/Drug Treatment Court program at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 14, in the District Court Multiservice Building, Courtroom 3, 3451 Courthouse Drive in Ellicott City.

The graduates – two from the drug court program and one from the Driving Under the Influence program – are the second group to graduate from the Howard County program since its establishment in June 2004. The DUI program was added in January 2005 after the Judiciary received a $166,700 grant from the Maryland Highway Safety Office to establish pilots for repeat drug and/or alcohol traffic offenders in the District Court in Anne Arundel, Harford, and Howard counties.

“Each of these individuals has not only reached a milestone in their recovery, but in their lives,” said Howard County District Court Judge Neil Edward Axel. “All of these graduates have dealt with serious alcohol and drug addictions, and that’s never easy. They have also worked through a very intensive program and have done so successfully.”

Howard County’s program provides intensive treatment, supervision, and comprehensive judicial monitoring to habitual offenders whose crimes are addiction driven. The program is a collaboration among the Maryland Judiciary, the Division of Parole and Probation, the State’s Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Public Defender, the county police department, and substance abuse treatment providers.

Drug treatment courts incorporate varying levels of treatment as well as vocational, educational, and life skills training and other services to address issues that contribute to drug abuse and criminal behavior. Maryland has 27 drug treatment courts with nine more planned.

Members of the media are invited to attend. Please contact the Court Information Office at 410-260-1488 in advance if you would like to bring a camera or need more information.

# # # # #