GRANT SETS STAGE FOR DRUG COURT

After months of planning, Jackson officials rejoiced Tuesday when they
heard the city received a state grant to establish a drug court program.
Jackson was awarded more than $344,000 to start a drug court program
designed to treat nonviolent offenders with drug or alcohol addictions.
Only four other cities and counties in Tennessee have drug courts including
Davidson and Shelby counties, Maryville and Murfreesboro.

With a drug court program, officials hope to rehabilitate nonviolent
offenders instead of re-arresting them. Only 4 percent of drug court
graduates are re-arrested and 50 to 60 percent of graduates eliminate drug
use altogether, according to the National Criminal Justice Reference
Service Web site.

The city will receive $344,841 over a four-year period for the program. The
city will provide a 25 percent match through a $13.75 litigation tax. The
tax will go into effect July 1 and is expected to generate $55,000 per
year, said Ron Pennel, administrative assistant to Jackson Mayor Charles
Farmer. This is more than what is needed, but all the money will go back to
the drug court.

The additional fee will be applied to city court fees, bringing costs up
$52.50. The average court cost statewide is $51.50.

Vicki Lake, who wrote the grant application, heard about the approval from
the state Tuesday morning. She then told the drug prevention committee at
its meeting.

"Everyone stood up and applauded Vicki Lake," Jackson City Court Judge
Blake Anderson said. "And we all clapped and thought that we have a chance
to make a difference."

The drug prevention committee will now work on the details of the program.
A drug court coordinator must be hired and offenders eligible for the
program will be identified, Pennel said.

"We can activate the drug court program July 1," he said. "But we probably
won't be up and running until September or October."

The drug court committee includes several local agencies. They are city and
county courts, Jackson Police and Madison County Sheriff's departments,
Pathways, Jackson Area Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency, Aspell
Recovery Center, West Tennessee Healthcare and the district attorney and
public defenders' offices.

On the Net: www.ncjrs.org/drug_courts/facts.html