WISE INVESTMENT

It would be senseless if North Carolina's budget crisis spelled the demise
of drug treatment courts in Mecklenburg County and elsewhere in the state.
The courts not only help rehabilitate those addicted to drugs and alcohol,
but are long-term money savers for the state. The programs keep many from
returning to jail, and out of an already overburdened court system.

With the state facing a $2 billion budget shortfall next fiscal year, many
worthy programs will face the ax. But policymakers should take a second and
third look at slashing this program. The long-term savings in keeping it
clearly outweigh any short-term budget benefit of cutting it. "The program
more than pays for itself," notes Shirley Fulton, Mecklenburg's senior
resident Superior Court judge.

She's right. Let's do the math. Studies show the $1.1 million a year the
state spends on drug treatment courts has saved the state $10 million a
year in criminal justice system costs. The state spends $2,000 to $2,500 a
year on each person in the drug treatment courts. It costs more than
$20,000 annually to keep an inmate in state prison.

And numbers reflect the success of the program as well. This state's first
drug treatment court started in Mecklenburg County in 1995. Since then,
more than 225 men and women have graduated from Mecklenburg's drug
treatment courts, which includes a program for repeat drunken drivers.
Similar courts now also operate in Catawba, Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, New
Hanover and Wake counties.

Recently, the Administrative Office of the Courts followed drug court
participants for a year, both those who graduated and those who were
terminated from the program. The study found only 13 percent of
Mecklenburg's graduates were re-arrested, mostly on minor traffic and
misdemeanor charges. In addition, none of Mecklenburg's 123 DWI defendants
has ever been re-arrested for drunken driving.

Statewide, 21 percent of the graduates were re-arrested. The re-arrest rate
for a similar group who did not go into the program was 47 percent.

Sen. Fountain Odom, D-Mecklenburg, acknowledges the program's benefits but
warns that in making the necessary budget cuts some good programs will
likely go. And Patty Quillian of the Administrative Office of the Courts
said the current budget crisis is "forcing the AOC to choose between
cutting programs and closing courts across the state. We can't close the
courts."

The AOC must cut its $305 million budget for the coming fiscal year by $11
million. Earmarked for elimination is all money for the state's drug
treatment courts. This year, the state spent $1.1 million to fund them.

But here's an opportunity for policymakers to see the forest, not just the
trees. It makes little sense to cut programs that lessen the burden on the
courts, while bemoaning the need to boost spending to accommodate swelling
court loads.

Judge Fulton thinks budget makers should preserve programs that help
lawbreakers become law-abiding, taxpaying citizens, not criminal defendants
and prison inmates. She's r;ight again. It's nuts to kill a program that
helps people and saves money.