DRUG COURT SET TO TURN OUT 250TH GRADUATE

A court program that keeps some drug-using felons out of jail if they
agree to a regimen of closely supervised addiction treatment will
celebrate its 250th graduate Thursday.

Clark County's nine-year-old felony drug court requires accused felons
to show up in court once a week, usually for more than a year, and to
meet with probation officers and support groups.

Continuing drug tests are required, too. Two out of three people who
start the program never finish. Since it began in 1999, 403 have been
kicked out and another 101 have opted out of the deal. Leaving the
program means jail or prison time.

At the moment, 96 people are in treatment.

Clark County's success rate is probably lower than in some counties,
said Bradley Finegood, the county's theraputic courts coordinator. But
that's because the county doesn't turn many addicts away, he added.
The court is open to most, but not all, nonviolent felony offenders.

"We don't cherry-pick people - we work with their addictions and we
take people with some of the hardest addiction problems," said
Finegood, who came to the county three months ago after working in
similar programs around the country. "Other drug courts definitely
cherry-pick. They want their numbers to look more successful."

Thursday's event is set for 10:30 a.m. in Superior Court Judge Diane
Woolard's courtroom in the county courthouse at 1200 Franklin St. The
250th graduate is Darin Graves, 41, of Vancouver.

The felony drug court is one of five therapeutic courts run by the
county. Others include a similar court for drug-using misdemeanants,
one for juvenile users, one for addicts at risk of losing custody of
their children and one for the mentally ill.

Two more, for drug-related domestic violence charges and low-intensity
substance abuse cases, are being developed, funded in part by a
countywide 0.1 percent sales tax hike last year.

All focus on treating participants more than punishing them.

Federal and state grants cover many of their costs.

Woolard has overseen the felony drug court since 2006, after the
departure of Judge James Rulli.