NO PROSECUTOR: DRUG COURT SHORT-HANDED THE DRUG court in Washington County is up the creek without a prosecutor. That's the glum assessment after a grant fell through and the prosecuting attorney was obliged to pull out of the court. Too many other cases. Too little time. The departure was with regrets. Terry Jones, the prosecutor, said his office will still handle a lot of the paperwork for the court, and will keep making referrals to it. But the office can't afford to man the courtroom unless another grant materializes--or some other way is found to pay for its operation. All this doesn't kill the court. But it does cripple it, according to Mary Ann Gunn, the circuit-chancery judge who runs the drug court. The drug court is only the second one in the state--Pulaski County has the other--and it opened earlier this year with a lot of high hopes. The drug court's record in Washington County is brief, but solid. The court allows non-violent offenders who aren't drug dealers to enroll in a treatment program instead of facing criminal charges. Twenty-two offenders are enrolled now, and the nine-month program will graduate its first participant in November. The drug court has to have a judge and a lawyer for the defendant, but it can get by without a prosecutor. Judge Gunn has been using a volunteer lawyer as a stand-in prosecutor, and has 10 other volunteers willing to do the work. But, since they aren't real prosecutors, they can't do everything a prosecutor can. For instance, they can't drop anybody from the program or write arrest warrants. The drug court did get some unexpected help from Washington County when the Quorum Court agreed to give the prosecutor's office three more clerks, who will be able to do some of the paperwork handled by deputy prosecutors now. Terry Jones says that, if he had the clerks, he might be able to free a deputy to work the drug court. That's a hope and a wish right now. The reality is that the court is too close to breaking down. Which would be a shame. The purpose of such a court is a good one: It helps non-violent drug offenders get their lives back together. It treats their drug problems instead of handing out criminal charges and sentences. In short, the drug court has a good chance of turning these offenders into productive citizens. So far, the results in Washington County have been promising. The search for more grants goes on. Considering the amount of concern over the drug problem, Judge Gunn's court should be a strong candidate for a state or federal grant. Here is one of the more effective ways to wage the war on drugs. This is too good an idea to let it wither.
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