Talks on Drug Court Resume as Prosecutor Offers to Compromise : Treatment: Dist. Atty. Bradbury is willing to drop some restrictive criteria. A committee reconvenes to develop program for addicts.

Ventura County’s drug court gained new life Monday, revived by a memo from Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury offering to compromise on sticking points that had left the creation of the experimental program near death.

Bradbury extended the olive branch after Municipal Judge Barry B. Klopfer declared the drug court all but dead late last month, the result of restrictive criteria demanded by the district attorney’s office.

The program--which would attempt to help addicts kick their addictions rather than face repeated jail sentences--has been in the planning stages for two years.

In a memo to Klopfer, Bradbury urged the judge to reconvene a committee set up to design the specialized court. Committee members met Monday morning and renewed their commitment to getting the program up and running.

“Things are moving forward,” said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald C. Janes, who represents the district attorney’s office on the committee. “There was an agreement to continue to work on developing a drug court.”

Promoted as a way to snap the cycle of drug-related arrests and jail sentences, the court would provide immediate treatment to drug offenders so they can overcome their addictions.

As part of that treatment, addicts would get career and job counseling, meet regularly with probation officers and be regularly tested for drug use.

Upon completion of the program, participants would have their criminal convictions dismissed. Those who are dropped from the program because of repeated drug use would return to jail to serve their sentences.

Committee members had hoped the court would begin hearing cases last month.

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Instead, bogged down by disagreements over how the court should run, the plan lost momentum. Late last month, Klopfer, assigned to oversee implementation of the court, issued a letter declaring that the effort had stalled.

In his letter, Klopfer complained that program criteria insisted on by the district attorney’s office were too restrictive, treating participants like “cookie-cutter addicts, not as individuals who may show varying strengths and weaknesses as they pursue their program of recovery.”

Last week, Bradbury offered a series of compromises aimed at getting the program back on track.

Bradbury said he would be willing to wait four weeks before beginning to enforce the “three strikes” provision of the drug court. That provision calls for participants to be kicked out of the program, and jailed, if they test positive for drugs three times during the course of the one-year program.

Initially, the district attorney’s office wanted the three strikes provision to be enforced at the beginning of the program.

“I offer these suggestions in the hope that we can once again get this project under way,” Bradbury wrote. “I continue to remain optimistic that all of the hard work devoted to this project by so many people can bring it to fruition.”

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But in his memo, Bradbury insisted on retaining a provision that participants be drug-free for the last three months of the program. Anyone who “tests dirty” within that time could be forced by prosecutors to stay in the program up to three extra months.

Ronald Janes said that provision is designed to ensure accountability.

“Our main concern is that the court does what it sets out to do, that it helps people get off drugs,” he said. “We want to have some period of validation where we can be sure that the stated purpose has been accomplished.”

Klopfer said Monday that he was pleased with Bradbury’s spirit of compromise and said a subcommittee would be meeting in coming weeks to further explore the issues.

“It’s very good news as far as I’m concerned,” the judge said. “I’d hate to see all of this talent and effort and energy wasted.”