FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 23, 2023
DA ZAPPALA WORKS WITH SOUTH KOREA TO TAKE DRUG COURT INTERNATIONAL
PITTSBURGH — District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. is pleased to welcome a crew of reporters from the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) to Allegheny County on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
The KBS reporters will feature DA Zappala in a documentary special intended to educate the South Korean public about the benefits of implementing a drug court into its criminal justice system.
Drug Court, developed in 1999, was the first of the four treatment courts that DA Zappala established. It is designed to treat and resolve the root cause of drug addiction, which puts many defendants in the criminal justice system.
“I’m very proud that our work in Allegheny County is being recognized on a global scale,” said DA Zappala. “I’ve always believed that suffering from addiction does not make you a criminal. Addiction can lead people to do criminal acts, but once you treat that cause, you can save lives.”
DA Zappala will sit down with KBS’s reporter, Felix Kwon. Kwon came across Allegheny County’s Drug Court Program when researching such successful programs in the United States.
“There is no such program in South Korea, which gives the second chance to the people who committed drug-related violations because we have one of the strictest drug policies in the world,” said Kwon. “However, due to the recent drug addiction epidemic, it is time to consider different options other than punitive matters. I’d like to advocate the benefits of the drug court program to Korean viewers by showing how it works and the results here, in Allegheny County, for the past decades.”
KBS reporters plan to wrap up filming for the documentary late Wednesday, Oct. 25.
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The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office serves approximately 1.2 million people and is one of the largest jurisdictions in the United States of America at 740 sq. miles. It employs over 200 employees, including over 100 attorneys, detectives, crime scene analysts and support staff. The District Attorney’s Office serves as the Chief Law Enforcement Office of the county and accepts referrals from more than 100 active police departments including the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, the Allegheny County Police Department and the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Department. For more information, visit alleghenycountyda.us.
Communications Department
Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office
communications@alleghenycountyda.us