NEW YORK — Arrested in a 19-person drug sweep, Tyrone Howard was one of only three who got sent to drug court, which offered him treatment instead of prison.
Eight months later, Howard is behind bars on murder charges, accused of putting a bullet in the head of a police officer who was chasing him Tuesday.
Officer Randolph Holder’s slaying has raised questions about the risks and potential shortcomings of drug courts, or drug diversion programs, that have been embraced nationwide as a way to ease jail overcrowding and reduce crime by attacking it at one of its sources: drug abuse.
New York’s mayor and police commissioner have branded Howard a career criminal who had once been arrested in a 2009 gunfight on an East Harlem basketball court and should not have been out on the streets.
“He would have been the last person in New York City I would’ve wanted to see in the diversion program,” Police Commissioner William Bratton said.
Yet the judge who handled the case said Howard — a longtime PCP user who despite his long rap sheet had no convictions for violent crimes — was a compelling candidate for drug court.
“I don’t get a crystal ball when I get the robe,” said state Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin. He defended his decision as “accurate and appropriate,” saying that doing time hadn’t helped Howard before. He also said he was never made aware of the 2009 shooting case.
Since their start in Miami in 1989, drug diversion programs have multiplied to 2,500 courts across the country, together handling about 120,000 cases a year, according to the federal National Office of Drug Control Policy.
The agency calls the programs “a proven tool for improving public health and public safety.” President Barack Obama mentioned them approvingly in a speech this summer about alternatives to prison, saying such programs can save taxpayer dollars.
Drug courts are generally for nonviolent offenders who commit crimes to feed their addictions, though some programs allow people with somewhat more serious records. The courts use treatment, drug testing, incentives and penalties to try to get defendants sober and straightened out.
Studies have credited drug courts with reducing recidivism and drug-use relapses. Some research estimates those reductions save society more money than the treatment costs, though some studies have found the opposite, according to a 2011 congressional report. Advocates say the courts also reduce the risk of domestic violence and child abuse.
“We can hold people accountable for their dangerous actions, while at the same time providing them with needed treatment and other services they need to change their lives,” the National Association of Drug Control Professionals says.
But some research has also found drug-court dropout rates of 60 percent, said David Lilley, a criminal justice professor at the University of Toledo.
Advocates for more liberal drug laws have complained that while some offenders respond well to treatment, those with tougher-to-overcome problems still end up behind bars for breaking program rules.
And some prosecutors and police fear diversion sometimes ends up giving breaks to drug dealers who claim they’re addicts to avoid prison.
“It’s critically important that you get the right people” into drug court, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of Police. After all, he said, “You’re making life-changing decisions for the subject and potentially life-threatening decisions for the public.”
At 30, Howard has been arrested more than two dozen times since he was 13 and sentenced to state prison twice since 2007 for drug possession and sale.
His involvement with drug court began with an October 2014 arrest on charges of selling crack to an undercover officer at a public housing complex. He was swept up as part of a larger drug case. Prosecutors asked for six years behind bars.
But after reviewing his record and reading a social worker’s report detailing Howard’s troubled home life and longtime addiction, McLaughlin agreed to refer his case for evaluation for drug court, where another judge OK’d Howard for the program.
In the 2009 gunbattle, Howard was believed to have shot and wounded another man, Dan Evans, according to court papers. Evans was convicted in the wounding of two bystanders. But for reasons that are unclear from the record, the case against Howard didn’t go forward. The district attorney’s office has given no explanation.
After being approved for drug court, Howard pleaded guilty to the drug charge in May and was released on $35,000 bail.
But he started missing monthly status meetings and various court dates in August. Then he became a suspect in a Sept. 1 shooting. An arrest warrant was issued Sept. 17, and police tried 10 times to locate him, authorities said.
Then, on Tuesday, Holder and his partner caught up with him while chasing after a bicycle thief, police said. Holder, 33, was shot in the head; Howard was wounded in the leg as police returned fire.
Howard’s lawyer, Brian Kennedy, has said there are “a lot of missing details” in the case.
