PLAN UNDER WAY TO HELP FIGHT DRUGS

Crack addicts have only one kind of future: dismal.

They spend years trying to chase down the rapturous sensation that
came with their first hit on the pipe. It's a ghost, always out there,
on the next street corner, in the next rock.

They scheme, rob and sell themselves. They beg and steal. They blow
out their hearts and arteries and let their bodies waste away to
jittery shadows. They do it all for a $10 piece of cocaine and cooked
baking soda that never quite gets them anywhere but jail or the morgue.

Tallahassee Police Chief Walt McNeil decided a few months ago he
wanted to change that. He had an idea for a community court that would
offer drug-addicted criminals a shot at treatment instead of
incarceration. Since early spring, police, city officials and
treatment experts have been meeting to come up with a plan.

And now, despite objections from prosecutors, they have the beginnings
of one. According to Greg Frost, a planner with the Tallahassee Police
Department, the program would take about 200 drug addicts a year off
the streets, put them through treatment, help them get job training
and a job.

It hinges now on two grants - totaling nearly $3 million over three
years - from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The
money will pay for staff, including a prosecutor, public defender and
bailiff and for basic operation costs. Frost said city officials
expect to know by September whether they'll get the money.

"There has to be at least some effort within the Tallahassee-Leon
County area to see if we can stop the revolving door," McNeil said.
"We hope this works. We hope this makes some difference.

"I'm extremely optimistic about the treatment grant. I think anybody
looking at our community can see that we have a treatment problem, and
the dollars will come."

McNeil said the court won't be a police program, though his department
is leading the initiative. Police will make arrests as usual, and it
will be up to the court to change the "revolving door" system that
puts them back on the street with little effect, he said.

The plan so far is this:

It will at first be limited to the Frenchtown area, where police say
the drug problem is the worst. Those charged with misdemeanor offenses
including prostitution and theft would be taken to the Leon County
Jail.

There, an intake specialist would review each case. If the offense is
linked to drug addiction - in other words, if those charged were
stealing or turning tricks to buy crack - then they'd be referred to
community court.

The court will be located in Frenchtown - officials are looking for a
building to use now. Circuit judges on loan from the Leon County
Courthouse will preside on a part-time basis.

Defendants who are convicted would be given two choices: jail or
treatment.

They'd go through another assessment process. Counselors would
determine the type of treatment - detox, medical and psychological -
that's needed. Treatment could take up to a year or longer.

Once addicts finish treatment and stay clean for several months,
they'd be given job training and then put into job placement. City
officials are working on that now but don't have details yet, said Pat
Holliday, an analyst with Neighborhood Services.

It won't be easy. Addicts normally have to make several attempts at
rehabilitation before they escape crack. Some never do.

One 33-year-old Tallahassee mechanic, who didn't want to give his name
for fear of losing his job, said he's been trying to kick drugs for 14
years. He hasn't been able to, even though he moved out of Frenchtown
to the south side. He has a wife and a child.

The man got out of jail just four months ago. He's still using -
spending $100 a day on crack - and worries that his probation will be
violated.

"By using crack cocaine, it's caused me to live a life of crime," he
said. "I take the plea, thinking I've got probation and some clean
time, I can do some good. But within six months, I'm right back in
that environment.

"The urge hits me. My stomach just starts turning and balling
up."

Like many who've been through the system, right or wrong, he has
little respect for the courts. No one's interested in getting help for
addicts, he said.

He admits he'll never be able to get off crack without help. He seems
interested in McNeil's plan. It would give him what he needs to get
clean: a change of environment - of people, places and things.

"I'm all for something like that," he said.

Public defender Nancy Daniels, U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Monticello) and
state drug czar Jim McDonough also have expressed support for the
initiative. Daniels is part of the planning committee. A Boyd
spokeswoman said he has offered his help. McDonough wants other
Florida communities to watch and learn from Tallahassee.

Rodney Floyd, president of the Griffin Heights Neighborhood
Association in Frenchtown, said his group will be watching and likely
participating in the community court.

"A lot of people feel you need some alternative to the current
process," he said. "People do need some sort of aid to get out of the
cycle, and I think this is a good alternative."

But not everyone approves of the community court. State Attorney
Willie Meggs, who was initially opposed, still isn't quite convinced.
While grant money would provide him with a prosecutor to handle cases,
he said he won't devote anyone to the program full time.

And he isn't sure it would work. Meggs said he thinks defendants, if
given a choice of 60 days in jail, or a treatment program that could
last up to a year, followed by probation and schoolwork and with the
possibility of jail if they don't stay clean, would choose jail.

"My solution to that is give them 60 days in jail," he said. "If they
get out and go back out there, we'll give them another 60 days."