PORT ANGELES — Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Preston Kayes puts some sanity in the legal system by helping repeat drug offenders help themselves take a different direction.
Kayes has served as Clallam County Drug Court coordinator since 1996.
Last month, he received the 2011 Drug Court Practitioner of the Year Award from the Washington State Association of Drug Court Professionals.
“If you want to know what shellshocked looks like, you should have seen me at the awards ceremony,” Kayes said. “I had no idea.”
The idea of drug court is to curb recidivism by treating misdemeanor drug crimes where they start: with addiction.
Kayes and others in the drug court system say therapeutic court restores lives and saves taxpayer dollars by reducing court and jail costs.
Kayes oversees the county’s adult and juvenile drug courts as well as the Clallam County High-Risk DUI Offender drug court, which deals only with those charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
First of their kind
Both of the diversion programs were the first of their kind in the state.
Neighboring Jefferson County has had a drug court since 2003.
To graduate, one must achieve a year of sobriety with intensive outpatient treatment and regular group and self-help meetings. Some endure months of rigorous in-patient treatment. Charges are dismissed when a person graduates from drug court.
“To me, common sense says that if you treat the problem, which is drug addition, you’re going to have much better results treating the symptoms,” Kayes said.
Kayes is quick to point out that Clallam County Drug Court is not a one-man show.
It requires a team of committed judges, attorneys and treatment providers, he said.
Since their inception, the county’s adult and juvenile drug courts have served a combined 938 participants and graduated 347.
Special ceremonies were held in 2009 when the adult drug court graduated its 200th participant and the youth court graduated its 100th.
Kayes was honored by the state for his “invaluable relationship with each drug court participant,” his willingness to “routinely give his personal time to provide additional support” and his passionate advocacy for treatment and drug courts to local and state organizations.
The award notes that Kayes “is the heart and soul of many participants’ recoveries from chemical addiction.”
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams, who presides over the adult drug court, agreed.
‘Unique expertise’
“He has unique expertise that he brings to our program and, frankly, all over the state,” Williams said. “He’s been an invited speaker at lots of conferences because of his wealth of knowledge about addiction, on how drug courts work and how they should work.”
Williams spearheaded a local effort to win a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to start the Clallam County Juvenile Drug Court in 1997.
The adult drug court was established two years later.
In 2004, Clallam County had the first high-risk DUI court in the state.
‘On cutting edge’
“We are on the cutting edge of the drug court movement,” Kayes said.
Williams presided over the adult and juvenile courts until he passed the youth docket to fellow Superior Court Judge George L. Wood in 2003.
After working closely with Kayes for 15 years, Williams described his colleague as a “treasure for our county.”
As coordinator, Kayes is the liaison between judges, defendants and treatment providers.
Williams said Kayes is adept at building relationships with the various treatment providers on the Peninsula, which include Lower Elwha Klallam tribal counselors.
Williams said drug court relies on the Salvation Army, Youth for Christ and other nonprofit groups for support.
Attorneys for Clallam County Drug Court are John Hayden of Clallam Public Defender, who has been with the program since its inception, and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Stormy Howell.
Tracey Lassus is the juvenile drug court prosecutor team. Jaymie Doane manages juvenile drug court cases.
Williams said Kayes often works closely with defendants to make sure they are holding up their end of the bargain.
Before arriving in Clallam County, Kayes was the treatment director at Lakeside-Milam Recovery Center near Seattle.
Williams said Kayes’ background in treatment — and his passion for his work — make him the “perfect fit” for drug court.
Part of Kayes’ role is to procure state and federal grants, which are quickly running dry.
County Administrator Jim Jones said drug courts across the state are at risk of losing their funding because of the budget crisis.
Jones said the immediate future of therapeutic drug courts in Washington will be more clear next spring.
“If it were up to us, the funding would stay,” Jones said.“To me, it’s a real valuable program.”
Jones said there are “all kinds of statistics” that show how drug courts reduce recidivism and save money.
“I think there is an awful lot of good that comes out of it,” he said.
Williams cited a recent study that found that for every dollar spent on drug court, there is a $2.81 savings in incarceration costs.
Beyond the dollar figures and reductions in court case loads, Williams said, the real beneficiaries of drug court are the children reunited with their parents and the graduates who become productive members of society.
“The whole idea of drug court is something I believed in from when they first started,” Kayes said. “It is now proven that it reduces recidivism and saves money.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
