GRANT FROM STATE PUTS $48,500 TOWARD KEEPING DRUG COURT GOING

Washington County --

FAYETTEVILLE -- Temporary funding for the Washington County Drug Treatment
Court was secured Tuesday through a $48,500 state grant.

The county will be reimbursed for the operating costs of the drug court by
the Arkansas Health Department's Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Prevention, the Quorum Court Finance Committee was told.

The grant only funds the court through April 30, said Hattie Lee, the
county's grant administrator.

"This is it," she said. "This is all that we know is out there for drug court."

But it's not the only option.

The Finance Committee also approved Tuesday the use of a $36,000 federal
grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to purchase new weapons for the
Washington County sheriff's office. The federal grant can be used in only
one of seven areas, including equipping law enforcement, establishing task
forces or establishing or supporting a drug court.

To receive the funds, the county must specify which area the money will be
used to supplement.

After April 30, the county may have to foot the bill for the drug court.

It is only the second specialized court in the state that enforces
drug-abuse treatment as judicial punishment for nonviolent drug users.

Tuesday's announcement of the state money for drug court is the first solid
funding news in the drug court's rocky infancy.

The court held its first monthly hearing in April under the assumption that
a $500,000 federal grant was on the way from the Justice Department.
Washington County's grant request was denied.

Washington County prosecutor Terry Jones pulled his deputy prosecutor from
drug court hearings in September when he learned the county was passed over
for a federal grant to fund the court.

Gov. Mike Huckabee then pointed Washington County officials toward the
state Department of Health for help.

The $48,500 grant was approved Nov. 1 pending the completion of paperwork
by the county. Of that money, $20,036 has been spent. The remainder will
fund the staff until April.

That grant provides for a part-time prosecutor, public defender and case
worker for the court.

The $36,000 grant for guns comes from the federal Local Law Enforcement
Block Grant program. The money is given annually to counties on the basis
of the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. The amount of money awarded is in
proportion to the number of violent crimes reported in the county, Lee said.

The 2000 grant money was twice that received in both 1998 and 1999.

The committee voted Tuesday to give the money to the sheriff's office. The
vote was at the recommendation of an advisory committee made up of local
representatives of law enforcement, courts and schools.

Washington County sheriff's deputies will trade in their Smith & Wesson
.357-caliber revolvers for .40-caliber Glock pistols with the federal grant.