SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM FACES CUTS LEGISLATORS DEBATE DRUG COURT FUNDS

CHARLOTTE (AP) -- It was a graduation ceremony like many others. Ellie
Andrews got a diploma. Her 3-year-old daughter, Abbey, applauded and later
licked the icing off a celebration cupcake.

But the commencement speaker was a judge, who congratulated Andrews for
completing a nearly yearlong treatment program in Mecklenburg County's drug
court, where the coursework included staying clean for more than 340 days
and never missing a court or counseling session.

"It was hard and time-consuming, but it was worth it," said Andrews, 30.
"It's much better than the alternative."

For Andrews, the alternative was a prison term of at least two years.
Instead, she ended up in the drug court, an option offered to some
nonviolent offenders charged with drug- and alcohol-related crimes that
studies have found to be more effective than traditional drug treatment
programs.

But despite the program's successes, and the support of both local and
statewide court officials, the drug courts in Mecklenburg County and more
than a dozen other judicial districts around the state are in peril as
legislators negotiate a budget for the next two years.

The Senate's version of the budget cuts nearly all of their operational
budget of just over $1 million. Sen. Scott Thomas, D-Craven, one of the
budget-writers, believes the courts can be run using existing resources and
untapped federal drug treatment funds.

But without state money, Mecklenburg County officials say they'll have to
shut down their drug courts by Oct. 1. And even if the money is restored,
there remains a deep conflict between the locally run courts and the state
Administrative Office of the Courts, which is trying to standardize drug
court operations and spending across the state.

"I don't understand it," said Phil Howerton, the Mecklenburg District Court
judge who congratulated Andrews at her graduation last week. "Come on,
guys, this works. Why kill it?"

On that point -- that drug courts work -- there appears to be little
debate. Mecklenburg County's drug court, the state's first when it opened
in 1996, today handles more offenders than any other in North Carolina and
has been held up as a national model.

A state study released in March reported 2004 graduation rates of 35
percent and a retention rate of more than 65 percent for all of North
Carolina's drug courts. While that might appear low, national studies have
found that 80 percent to 90 percent of drug abusers don't even make it to
the one-year mark of traditional treatment programs.

Numerous studies of the nation's more than 1,100 drug courts show
participants are substantially less likely to be re-arrested or convicted
than nonparticipants. One recent national study, which included drug court
graduates from North Carolina, found that only 16.4 percent of 17,000 drug
court graduates had been re-arrested and charged with a felony.

Estimates of money saved by drug courts, which can substitute for
incarceration and are aimed at preventing future arrests, trials and prison
time, vary widely, but supporters agree the long-term payoff is substantial.

The question of state funding is now before a conference committee working
on a compromise spending plan.

Thomas, the senator who handles courts budgeting, said he was ordered by
the Senate's top budget writers to find spending reductions beyond those
recommended by Democratic Gov. Mike Easley. He said the Senate's cuts don't
mean the end of drug courts.

"It was our intent for the drug treatment courts to continue to exist with
existing personnel," he said.

Howerton and others in Mecklenburg County, where the court system is
already overburdened, dismiss that logic. Drug courts there and elsewhere
have operated for years on a patchwork of local and state funding and
federal grants, many of which were designed to offer one-time seed money.

Statewide, the 15 adult drug courts in 14 judicial districts around the
state -- from Avery and Watauga counties in the mountains to New Hanover
County at the coast -- served 1,002 participants in 2004.

Participants such as Andrews undergo at least a year of intensive group and
individual counseling. They are required to find work, pay $10 a week
toward the costs of their treatment and are monitored with regular drug and
blood-alcohol tests. They can graduate -- with charges dismissed and
probation terminated -- only if they have been clean for three to six months.

For those not making the grade, there are harsh consequences. Before
Andrews' recent graduation, Howerton sent three participants to jail for
one-or two-day stays, with one going straight from the courtroom to the
county lockup across the street. Two had missed multiple treatment
sessions. Another had tested positive for cocaine.

(Associated Press writer Gary D. Robertson contributed to this report.)