Lehigh County executive announces new drug court to help residents with drug addiction

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong gave his annual "State of the County" address Thursday night at Coca-Cola Park.

Armstrong said the county is in "excellent" shape as he highlighted the accomplishments of the past year and what residents have to look forward to in 2020.

Armstrong gave kudos to all parts of Lehigh County's government but pointed to one specific area where he felt a change is due-the court system.

Armstrong says the county has come a long way in helping residents with drug addiction. He believes it can do even better is by following the lead of others across the state.

"We want a drug court. We want to start doing things to not incarcerate people but to rehab people," Armstrong said.

While many of the specifics were kept out of his speech, Armstrong says county judges Edward Reibman and Douglas Reichley have been researching the idea for the past year or so. Armstrong says Judge Reichley will be running the court.

"This will be a special program where we can take people that need help and instead of putting them in jail get them where they belong," Armstrong said.

Most counties in Pennsylvania have them. Meanwhile, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin says this isn't a new idea in Lehigh County.

"We've been doing it for 15 years and we've been doing it very successfully," Martin said.

Martin is referring to the "Team MISA" program for mental health and substance abuse. MISA helps inmates get into treatment instead of sitting in jail before trial. Martin says the drug court is a probation and parole function after the trial.

"So this drug court, while it's a good idea, is not going to supplant Team MISA," Martin said.

Martin's also concerned about resources for the drug court.

"It's very difficult to dedicate a judge only to drug court and that's one of the benefits of Team MISA," Martin said. "We have a judge when we need one but we're not sitting in front of a judge when we're disposing of these cases."

Armstrong, though, thinks there's still a place for drug court.

"Maybe not in preventing the first incident but to keep them from coming back the second time. That's the big goal here," Armstrong said.

Armstrong says he's still waiting on two grants from the state before the court gets up and running in September.