DRUG COURT FUNDED

The 14th Judicial Circuit's drug court program in Beaufort County has
funding for another year, after facing financial problems earlier this summer.

The $105,000 needed to cover the 21 Beaufort County residents in the
program has been raised, said Beaufort attorney Manning Smith, who
volunteers as the drug court's judge in Beaufort County.

The Town of Hilton Head Island, the city of Beaufort, the town of Port
Royal and Beaufort County all pitched in, Smith said.

The drug court's expenses are $5,000 per participant, plus a $1,065 fee
that each participant pays, Smith said. Those amounts cover drug
screenings, counseling and administrative costs.

The drug court is aimed at preventing repeat offenders from being funneled
through the normal penal system and provides intensive addiction treatment
and supervision to nonviolent offenders. Program participants are required
to attend counseling, agree to random drug tests and do "homework" assigned
by the judge. Participants must plead guilty to be accepted into the program.

The estimated cost of running the program in Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton,
Colleton and Allendale counties is about $350,000 each year, program
director Susan Chapin said.

When it began in 1999, the court was funded by a three-year federal grant
intended to help start the program, Smith said. When the grant ran out in
June, Smith began soliciting money from municipalities and counties.

"Everyone we asked funded us at least at the level we asked," Smith said.

Although the drug court in Beaufort County has sound funding, the program
is suffering in Jasper, Hampton, Colleton and Allendale counties, Chapin said.

Unless the court receives state funding, the programs in these counties
cannot accept new participants, Chapin said. Most of the costs for current
participants had been covered by the three-year federal grant.