By MATT CHANDLER
mchandler@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1654

Amherst Town Justice Mark Farrell was named Jurist of the Year by the Judges and Police Conference of Erie County.

He was recognized for his work in the area of therapeutic justice - using alternative methods to give non-violent offenders a chance to avoid jail for certain crimes.

Farrell was instrumental in the 1996 creation of the first suburban drug court in the United States, the first domestic violence court in Erie County in 1997 and the world's only gambling treatment court in 2001. In May 2009, he added to his therapeutic courts when he opened the first suburban veteran's treatment court in the nation.  

Farrell, who has served as Amherst town justice since 1994, said he was honored to be recognized by the Judges and Police Conference. The therapeutic intervention approach is making a significant difference in the community, he says.

"I've been doing all of these specialty courts, and I enjoy making a difference. And I enjoy doing as much intervention as possible to avoid people becoming repetitive offenders in the system," he says.

The success of therapeutic courts speaks for itself. The drug treatment court, which has served close to 5,800 people since it began, has a success rate of 88 percent. According to Farrell, nearly nine out of 10 individuals who completed the program aren't re-arrested on drug charges.

"We are extremely pleased with those numbers," he says. "When you consider the cost factor involved in handling these cases traditionally, not only are we saving the system buckets of money, but you are also able to reclaim individuals back into society as productive members. And that's really what the difference is."

The success rate is even higher in the gambling court.

"The fallout from gambling leaves an untold carnage that people just don't pay much attention to because everybody thinks of gambling as a sport and as recreation," he says. "But there is about 5 percent of the population that literally just destroys themselves and everybody around them with compulsive gambling."

A study conducted by the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling found a direct link between compulsive gambling and crimes committed to support people's addiction. The study estimates that there are more than 2.5 million pathological gamblers in the United States and an additional 3 million "problem gamblers."

Farrell says he identified a spike in petty crime, foreclosure, DWI arrests and domestic violence in conjunction with the opening of the first Canadian Casino in Niagara Falls in 1996. That led him to create the gambling court, modeled after the program he created for drug addicts.

He says he works through the various programs to ensure that people who succeed in the gambling court don't replace it with drugs or alcohol, and vice versa. He says it is common for a person with an addiction to replace one with another, and his therapeutic treatment programs address that issue, as well.

"I've had the chance to travel to Austria, Australia, Canada and about 25 states to speak about our gambling court, which is the only one of its kind," he says. "I will be working intimately with several other jurisdictions that are trying to set them up around the country."