DRUG COURT COULD FACE SHUTDOWN

With Federal Grant Exhausted, Officials Seek Alternative Sources For Funds

If private donors and elected officials do not rescue it, the Charleston
County Adult Drug Court will end this fall, its presiding judge said Monday.

Since 1999, the drug court has stretched a two-year federal grant to run a
highly structured program that recently lost its federal funding.

With its federal money nearly gone, Probate Judge Irvin Condon is expected
to meet June 27 with Charleston County Council's Finance Committee in hopes
of saving a program that has diverted some drug cases from clogged court
schedules and helped non-violent drug users improve their lives.

Condon is not expected to ask for money because council rejected a funding
request last year. Instead, Condon will present "options" to council, he
said. The judge declined to give details.

If the council doesn't provide a solution, the court could seek non-profit
status, which would allow it to accept private donations.

If both approaches fail, Condon said, "This court will end until there
comes a time that funding is available."

County Council Chairman Tim Scott said council "is open to options that I
hope Judge Condon will come up with. He is working on a few for us to
consider."

Scott said he does not know what those options are. Scott declined to say
directly if council would fund the court, which helps people with drug and
alcohol addiction shake their habits to work full time and care for families.

"I think the question is, 'What will it cost if there is no drug court?' "
Scott asked. "That is the question that has to be answered." Any funding
option Condon might propose ultimately needs council's approval, Scott added.

Charleston County's drug court, one of 10 adult drug courts in South
Carolina, began in July 1999 with a grant from the U.S. Justice Department.
Earlier this year, the local court applied for a second two-year grant for
$300,000, but that request was rejected last month. Instead of awarding
the Charleston court a second grant, the Justice Department gave money to
start juvenile drug courts in Lancaster and Rock Hill.

Drug court participants plead guilty to charges of selling and using
illegal narcotics. They are given prison sentences that are set aside if
they work, avoid drugs and follow court rules. Once they graduate from the
program, which can take more than a year to complete, prosecutors request
that guilty pleas be withdrawn and the charges dismissed.

With mandatory counseling, drug testing and appearances at weekly court
sessions, the program is more intensive and restrictive than probation,
counselors and participants have said.

Schelley Carlton, the court's coordinator, said the program has enough
money to continue until September. The program should graduate 26 people by
then, she said.

Because funding has been in doubt, Solicitor Ralph Hoisington's office has
not referred new participants to the program, Carlton said. "As soon as we
become funded on a regular basis, the solicitor can have people plead into
the program," she said.

Drug court participants have said the program helped them. But drug courts
around South Carolina have not slowed the sale and use of illegal drugs,
officials said. Drug arrests have increased in the past decade. From 1990
to 2000, adult and juvenile drug charges in South Carolina rose from 15,599
to 28,320, according to the State Law Enforcement Division.

John Hart, legislative liaison for the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other
Drug Abuse Services, said drug courts "take pressure off the criminal
justice system and provide quality treatment for people with a serious
disease."

While police step up drug enforcement, drug courts can only reach a small
percentage of the criminal population, Hart said. "Drug court is not a
prevention tool; it is an intervention tool."

"Violent crime has gone down in South Carolina and the rest of the country,
but unfortunately South Carolina is still ranked in the top five states per
capita in violent crimes," said Burke Fitzpatrick, administrator of the
Office of Justice Programs in the S.C. Department of Public Safety.

"It is reasonable to believe that violent crime is fueled by alcohol and
drug abuse," he said. "When you see drug arrests rising, that can be
indicative of greater drug activity, but it can also show increased
enforcement efforts.

Drug courts balance that out to take some offenders out of that cycle of
crime."