FORT BEND COUNTY PROGRAM IS AIMED AT FIRST-TIME DRUG OFFENDERS

Early in 2002, Fort Bend County will initiate a new drug program that
offers first-time offenders a chance to avoid jail or prison and get their
lives back on track.

The goal behind the program, says Jim McAlister, an assistant district
attorney, is to stop the revolving door in which people continue to come in
with drug problems.

The program is a weekly drug court conducted by state District Judge
Bradley Smith, who says his goal is to save tax money by keeping drug users
out of prison.

It costs the state $40,000 a year to keep someone in jail, Smith said.

Drug courts have been around for years in many parts of the country, but
Smith's court will be different than most because the emphasis will be on
getting the offender immediately into a drug treatment program. It is
difficult for people to get off drugs. Once they become involved, it's
easier for them to start violating other laws. They just don't make good
judgments, Smith said.

The program allows a first-time drug offender to enter a guilty plea but
not be sentenced. Instead, sentencing will be reset continually for a year
to 18 months.

During that time, the defendant must enter a treatment program and agree to
drug testing at least twice a week during the first few months and randomly
afterward. He must also pay the cost.

If the person completes the program, the prosecutor asks the judge to
dismiss the charge. The guilty plea is withdrawn and the defendant has no
record of a conviction.

To be eligible for the drug court, the person must be accused of a
relatively minor drug offense _ either a state jail felony or a
third-degree felony.

Besides giving prosecutors a chance to reduce their caseloads, the program
provides them with a means to direct people away from a life of drugs and
crime.

In the past, those caught using drugs are placed on probation or sent to
jail, said McAlister, a prosecutor who has handled hundreds of drug cases
over the past 10 years.

When they get out, they go back with their old friends and start the same
thing. In six months or a year, we see them again, McAlister said.
Defendants often accumulate new charges while awaiting trial on prior
arrests, McAlister said.

They bond out of jail, and while they are waiting to go to trial they go
right back doing the same stuff and then pick up a new charge, he said.

Smith said defense attorneys to whom he has spoken to about the drug court
have been supportive of the concept.

They know it is in the best interest of their clients, Smith said. Smith
has spent 25 years in the legal system as a prosecutor and a judge and has
seen firsthand what drugs have done to people. All anti-drug efforts have
been aimed at cutting the supply. Basic economic law tells us the way to
stop the drug trade is to do something about the demand, he said.

Smith said he hopes to start the court in January or at the latest, early
February. He said as many as 30 people might be involved in the program at
any given time.

This has been very successful in other places, he said. Hopefully we can
save the public expense of these people continuing to violate the law.