Last week, the City of Las Vegas aired a 30-minute special on KCLV Channel 2 called Saving Lives, One Case at a Time, highlighting the municipal court’s evolving approach to dealing with addiction. One of those specialty courts, Women in Need of Change, offers assistance to women convicted of prostitution and drug-related offenses.
Judge Cynthia S. Leung, who has presided over the WIN court since 2008, says trauma almost always plays a role as to why a person “constantly goes through this revolving door.”
“You learn things like at 13 the prostitution started, or 11 is when a sexual assault occurred,” Leung says. “Drug addiction is a big part of masking that. … The stories are horrible. And yet for the segment of the population that I deal with, it’s a really common story.”
There are different courts for youth, veterans, habitual offenders and people with DUIs—a mental health court is in development—but there’s still a lot of work to be done. Of the 200 women who’ve agreed to enter the WIN court, fewer than 30 have graduated.
“[We’re] coming up on our 25th graduate,” Leung says. Some women don’t make it. Others relapse but stay in the program. “Success is something that I look at on an individual basis. You know that they’re going to relapse. You have to take a look at the context in which that happens.”
Leung says the implementation of the mental health court—and better education across the board—would help all courts yield greater results. “It always comes down to funding … although quite a few folks in the legislature understand and are sympathetic to the issue. … This isn’t a part of the population that you can just ignore.”
