With the county attorney now on board, the Flathead County District Court softly launched its adult drug court program in December under Judge Danni Coffman, four years after the state mandated it.  

Drug courts are intense 18- to 24-month-long rehabilitative programs designed to help individuals with felony and/or misdemeanor drug charges recover from their addiction. Individuals typically enter the program through a guilty plea agreement. 

“They're either in or they're out,” said Katie Davis, the coordinator for an adult drug court in Lincoln County, which launched in February 2020. "It's really not something that you can kind of be in. It's incredibly difficult.” 

Participants meet weekly in the courtroom with a district court judge, the county attorney, parole officers, program coordinator and mental health professionals. They undergo drug testing, attend weekly support groups, work a job and learn life skills, such as scheduling a doctor’s appointment or applying for food stamps. 

The program aims to reduce repeat drug- and alcohol-related cases by treating individuals’ addictions instead of putting them behind bars, Coffman said.  

WHEN THE 67th Montana Legislature allocated funding for a fifth judge in Flathead County District Court four years ago, lawmakers made establishing an adult drug court a condition for the money.   

There’s a high level of drug possession and drug-related crimes in the Flathead Valley, according to local public safety officials. The Northwest Montana Drug Task Force conducted 267 drug investigations in 2025 and reportedly seized 3,600 fentanyl pills, 134 grams of fentanyl, 143 grams of cocaine and 8,900 grams of meth.  

But efforts to launch the drug court in 2021 hit a dead-end with the Flathead County Attorney’s Office, whose participation was required to launch the program.   

County Attorney Travis Ahner had for years declined to join in, arguing his staff could barely stay even with the drug cases, homicides and other criminal cases that flood his office. 

It’s at a point where only a fraction of drug possession reports even get charged, Ahner said. 

“They had asked my office, ‘Hey, we got these funds, will you be a part of it?’ I said, ‘I can't. I don't have the personnel. I don’t have the bandwidth for it,’" Ahner said.       

But when Coffman took the bench in 2023, filling in the new judge position, she resumed talks with Ahner. This was an important policy issue to the state, Coffman said, and she felt a responsibility to see it through, especially since most of the cases on her docket involve substance use. 

“Anecdotally, I would say at least 99% of my cases are drug or alcohol related,” Coffman said. “Even the cases involving theft or burglary or assault often have at their root drugs and addiction issues.”  

District Court Judge Heidi Ulbricht, who took the bench as a Kalispell municipal judge in 1994 before moving to district court in 2013, also saw a need going unaddressed. Six years ago, she launched a family treatment court, called Family Tree, to handle child neglect cases caused by a parent’s substance use disorder. 

Her program is estimated to save taxpayers $15,000 a year per child in foster care, Ulbricht said, plus an estimated savings of $750,000 to $1.5 million for pregnant mothers in the program. 

“I think Judge Coffman's program will be very successful,” Ulbricht said. “Our community’s needed it for a long time.”   

While his team remains stretched thin, Ahner said Coffman’s pitch for the adult drug court was compelling. While he agreed to participate, he has doubts about its effectiveness. Most individuals who develop an addiction to drugs “are not interested in changing,” the county attorney said. 

“For some people this is the silver bullet,” Ahner said. “It's not the silver bullet for society.”  

A LITTLE more than half of the counties and judicial districts in Montana have access to an adult drug court or family treatment court. As of 2023, 14 of 22 judicial districts and 28 of 51 counties have implemented at least one of the programs, according to a report released by the Montana Supreme Court. 

Drug courts have been observed across the state to reduce rates of repeat offenders.  

Around 80% of total program participants between 2016 and 2018 did not reoffend within three years of leaving the program, according to the report. Those who graduated had an even lower recidivism rate, with 90% of graduates not being convicted of a felony or misdemeanor charge within three years of leaving the program. 

Five years after Lincoln County launched its own adult drug court, District Court Judge Matthew Cuffe speaks highly of its effectiveness.  

“From my perspective, it was a program that allowed me to have a more direct impact with the participants,” Cuffe said.    

When a person fails to check in with their parole or probation officer, fails their urinalysis test or misses a meeting, they’re forced to immediately deal with the consequences.   

“I am clearly less than happy. You're getting scolded in front of everybody and you're having to explain yourself,” Cuffe said. “And that's uncomfortable to do.”   

The point of the program is not to shame participants, but bring them face to face with their problems, knowing the justice system is there for support.   

“It's really kind of cool to watch,” said Davis, the drug court coordinator in Lincoln County. "When they come in here, they are ... lumps of clay. And then this whole team kind of forms them into, first of all, believing that they can do it, and then watching them just grow into adults, which sounds terrible, but a lot of them have never had to.”   

Alisha Barrows, who developed a drug addiction at a young age, currently works for Lincoln County, running the Recovery First drop-in center. She has an associate’s degree in substance abuse counseling and graduated from the University of Montana in May with a degree in social work.  

Getting arrested in 2019 was what saved her, she said. She was among the first participants in Lincoln County’s adult drug court program in 2020.  

“It's very intense,” Barrows said, “but it sets you up for success.” 

Reporter Hannah Shields can be reached at 758-4439 or [email protected].