$6 MILLION SLATED FOR DRUG COURTS

The final sticking points in a $77 billion, two-year spending deal
ironed out between the House and Senate on Wednesday included a $6
million drug court budget item, which was kept, and a new $2 million
program to help inmates re-enter society, which largely was jettisoned.

House budget negotiators for days told their Senate counterparts
that the senators could keep drug court spending or the re-entry
funding, but not both, said sources in the negotiations.

Finally, the House and Senate agreed to keep the drug courts and
scale back the inmate re-entry offering, said Sen. Walter A. Stosch,
R-Henrico County and one of the six Senate budget negotiators.

"There was a great deal of debate" about the drug courts, Stosch
said. "From the Senate's point of view, they by and large do make a
significant contribution."

Stosch said the senators insisted the drug courts work and while
both drug courts and helping inmates re-enter society are good
programs, the 14 drug courts that will continue to receive state
funds are part of an existing program with a track record, while
re-entry is a new program.

"We decided to add five new probation officers to the Department of
Corrections" at a cost of about $300,000 to help establish the
re-entry program and will try to come back in future budgets to fund
it, Stosch said.

Meanwhile, a stalemate over the appointment of judges continues and
is holding up the possible elections of as many as 30 or more judges
by the legislature.

A handful of disputed judgeships and clashes between some
legislators over a few appointments have created a roadblock
stopping the legislature from filling many judgeships the House and
Senate had largely agreed upon, Stosch said.

One of the seemingly resolved judicial selections being held up is
the election of Madison County lawyer Jack Berry, who had been
selected by lawmakers in both the House and Senate for a circuit
court judgeship open in the rural counties of the 16th Circuit.

Stosch said that if judges are not elected by the legislature by the
time it reconvenes April 23, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Richmond
Democrat, could make appointments to fill the positions on a temporary basis.

Charlottesville advocates of drug courts were happy with the budget agreement.

Jeff Gould, drug court administrator in Charlottesville, said he is
"relieved and finally breathing again. I am just absolutely
delighted rational sense prevailed."

"It made no sense to do away with a proven program of success,"
Gould said of the drug courts, which have about 1,400 clients
statewide and offer intensive treatment with drug testing and
sanctions for a year at a cost of about $6,000 per person treated.

This month, 48 people are receiving treatment in the
Charlottesville-Albemarle Drug Court, Gould said.

Drug court graduates have a 17.7 percent recidivism rate the first
year after graduating, compared with at least 50 percent for
addicted inmates who serve sentences behind bars without the same
treatment, he said.

In addition to saving the drug courts, House and Senate negotiators
agreed on $1.5 million to fund Alicia's Law, giving money to task
forces in Northern Virginia and Bedford County to investigate
Internet sex crimes against children.