OFFICIALS DISCUSS BENEFITS OF ESTABLISHING JUVENILE DRUG COURT

St. Landry Parish officials met Wednesday in the drug court office on
Bellevue Street in Opelousas to discuss establishing a juvenile drug court
for the parish.

"The success we see in the adult drug court, we can carry that to the
juvenile drug court," said Judge Jimmy Genovese, who is the chief justice of
the 27th Judicial District Court. "That is important. The juvenile offenders
who are not addressed today become the adult offenders of tomorrow."

Each month, one of the four district court judges oversees drug court, which
is funded by the Louisiana State Supreme Court. The responsibility rotates
simultaneously with the responsibility of handling criminal cases for the
court. However, as the chief justice, Genovese has administrative
responsibility for the adult drug court. Drug court was established in Feb.
2002, and has been praised by St. Landry Parish District Attorney Earl
Taylor, the four judges and members of law enforcement and the criminal
justice system.

Drug court is an 18-month-long program that involves treatment, counseling
and drug testing.

"It is a day-to-day, in-your-face kind of thing, and it is working. That
person sees a judge every single week. We have had two graduating classes in
the last two and a half years. We have a lot of success with it. It's a
really touching, emotional thing when they graduate," Genovese said
Wednesday.

Pam Bollich is the adult drug court coordinator. She called the meeting to
share ideas about establishing a juvenile drug court, which she says she
hopes to create in coordination with the effort by parish government to
build a juvenile detention center.

A significant contributor to the meeting was Sonya Barbier, the coordinator
for the 15th Judicial District drug court. She had a hand in establishing
two drug courts, the one she currently presides over in Lafayette Parish and
one for the 16th Judicial District Court in Iberia Parish.

Bollich, Barbier, Genovese and drug court officials shared ideas with state
Sen. Donald Cravins, D-Arnaudville. They talked about the need to address
the juvenile drug problem, how the problem affects education, how to proceed
for funding and how to coordinate their effort with other agencies and
government entities, including the parish's developing juvenile detention
center.

"I think we have a need for a detention center if it is a comprehensive
center that addresses more than the issue of incarceration," Cravins said.
"It has to be a community-based program that deals with treatment and
education so we can go beyond that need for incarceration. This meeting is a
great step forward, but nothing happens overnight. Just as the adult drug
court took a lot of planning and work, this will as well. But, thanks to
these people involved, the mechanism already is in place."

A detention center, Cravins and Genovese agreed, must be a temporary
detention with treatment and education opportunities and a regimented
schedule.

Part of the problem with juvenile discipline is that the kids are opting out
of the system by deliberately behaving badly to be expelled from school.

"That's what they want, they want to run the streets or do nothing, to
escape the regiment of the school system. These kids then fall off the edge
of the earth," Genovese said.

Barbier agreed with Cravins and said the center would be the perfect place
to assess the juveniles and perhaps steer them toward more productive and
responsible lives. She said the drug court and the detention center should
have more stringent discipline so that going to it is not an opportunity to
do nothing.

"You have to have a regimented formula to address the overall problem,"
Cravins said.

Cravins said about 10 percent of students in public schools have some kind
of disciplinary issue. In St. Landry Parish, that translates into between
1,000 and 1,500 children who are starting trouble in school.

"It is creating havoc in the classroom, causing problems for those kids who
want to learn," Cravins said. "One of the most fundamental parts of that
discussion is that the St. Landry School Board needs to really get serious
and address this whole issue of an alternative school for this parish. Until
that is resolved, the discussion of community based program for juveniles or
even a drug court for juveniles is almost moot. Because we need to find a
way for those kids who are disruptive. We need a real alternative program
that addresses the real problems so that when they go back to the regular
school system they are ready to behave and learn," Cravins said.

Bollich said the preliminary meeting was a positive one.

"There are a lot of people who need to be involved, including parents. It
takes a village. Now that we have the adult drug court established, we think
we can put both programs under the same roof and address the juvenile drug
problem in our parish," Bollich said.