3 OFFICIALS JOIN CHURCHES' FIGHT TO SAVE DRUG COURT

GLEN CARBON -- The United Congregations of Metro-East, an activist group
composed of 22 area churches, is being assured by key Madison County Board
members that they will try to preserve the drug court program.

About 250 members of UCM met Tuesday night at the New Bethel United
Methodist Church in Glen Carbon to rally support for the drug court
program, education funding and economic development.

Herb Reisinger, a retired steelworker who helped organize UCM, said the
group received the assurances from three members of the County Board's
Finance Committee. The three - committee Chairman Bill Little, Larry
Trucano and Gene Frizzo - acknowledged their commitment to the program
following a County Board meeting on Wednesday. The committee has a total of
five members.

Reisinger said he now believes the program will remain, but added, "We felt
pretty good in August too, and then we got nervous."

UCM's meeting was not as well attended as the group's first meeting in
April, when about 1,000 members showed up at St. Mary's Catholic Church in
Madison. The idea behind Tuesday's meeting was much the same: to flex UCM's
political muscle and build support for programs like drug court.

Drug court brings together judges, prosecutors, assistant public defenders,
probation officers and treatment officials in an attempt to reduce the
number of people who abuse drugs. Of the 163 graduates of the program, only
seven have been re-arrested.

But the program is also expensive - costing about $573,000 a year - and the
County Board's Finance Committee has been struggling to balance the county
budget for the 2002-2003 fiscal year. Drug court had been among the
programs that could have been axed.

If a drug offender was jailed, it would cost $14,600 a year on average for
prison costs. About 100 people are enrolled in drug court each year, said
Terri Sorger, coordinator of the drug court program.

The county, like many governmental agencies, is feeling the pinch from the
nation's economic woes and the state's budget crisis.

For now, it appears that 39 full-time jobs and one part-time job will have
to be cut in Madison County government. The cuts have been spread across a
variety of county departments - and for now the people working in the drug
court program are not affected.

But even with the support of a majority of the Finance Committee, there's
no guarantee that the full 29-member County Board won't override the
commitment of Little, Trucano and Frizzo. And the Finance Committee along
with County Administrator James Monday are still struggling to keep the
budget in the black.

Today at 3:30 p.m. the Finance Committee is expected to meet again on the
budget. At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, the County Board is planning to hold a
public hearing on the budget.