CITY PLANS DRUG COURT

For 37 years, Steve Hart was addicted to alcohol and various drugs. And to
feed his habit, he stole time and again.

Hart would get caught, be sent to jail, get out and undergo treatment. Then
he would be back on the streets feeding his addiction.

And time and again, Hart would be re-arrested for burglary, writing bad
checks, DUI or public drunkenness.

This cycle is what local officials want to stop. They are now attacking the
problem at the roots - by trying to treat the drug and alcohol addiction.

Local judges, court clerks, police officers, city employees and drug,
alcohol and health care officials formed a drug prevention committee and
are planning to establish a drug court to help non-violent offenders with
an addiction problem.

"We know that 85 to 90 percent of all crime is in some way connected to
drugs and alcohol," Jackson Police Chief Rick Staples said. "Our response
has been to focus on strict law enforcement and tougher penalties. So
locking an addict up provides a temporary solution, which lasts as long as
a person is incarcerated."

But a drug court is designed to treat the addiction of nonviolent
offenders, he said.

"Instead of serving jail time, they are placed in a drug court program,
which is a real intensive program," Circuit Court Judge Don Allen said.
"It's an effort to rehabilitate them without incarcerating them."

From July 2000 to June 2001, 7,099 people were arrested and prosecuted in
Jackson City Court on non-violent misdemeanors and felonies. The offenses
include domestic assaults, driving under the influence, contributing to the
delinquency of a minor and others, said Vicki Lake, a drug prevention
committee member.

Hart, who is now a recovering addict in Jackson, applauds the city's effort
to rehabilitate addicts. But he's skeptical about the results.

"If there's not a desire to stop drinking and drugging, they are not going
to stop," he said. "You can't order someone to sober up. I more or less
wanted to get sober."

The Cost

A drug court program would cost taxpayers less money. The program costs
$2,500 a person per year compared to $18,000 a person per year to house an
inmate, said Ron Pennel, a committee member and city administrator.

"This program is actually a way to save taxpayers money because people are
less likely to repeat (crimes,)" Jackson City Court Clerk Daryl Hubbard said.

To establish a drug court, the drug committee applied for a federal grant
filtered through the state. The application was due on April 16 and Jackson
should know whether it's accepted this month, Lake said.

The grant asks for more than $89,000 with a matching 25 percent from the
city. Jackson City Council has already approved a $13.75 litigation tax to
generate the 25 percent match. The tax will go into effect July 1 after it
passes a second reading on Tuesday, Pennel said.

The additional fee will bring court costs up to $52.50. The average court
cost statewide is $51.50.

"It's costing people who violated the law," City Court Judge Blake Anderson
said.

The cost will be added onto all citations that appear before the judge. But
if someone pays a fine to the clerk, it will not be added, Hubbard said.

The drug court team also will be working in a voluntary basis. The drug
court team will include the judges, attorneys and treatment facility
representatives.

Officials hope to serve 20 clients in the program's first year.

The Program

The drug court program is voluntary. Participants who volunteer would
receive a suspended sentence and then be placed on a 12- or 18-month
program. While in the program they must attend treatments and prevention
meetings weekly along with meeting with the judge.

"They also have to get a GED or J-O-B to be in the program," Hubbard said.

The purpose of getting an education or a job is to provide the participants
with the ability to make payment for their treatments, Anderson said.

"This is not a gift," he said. "People have to work for it."

If any of the rules are violated, participants will be sent to jail to
finish their sentence, Anderson said.

Hart said if he had heard about the program earlier in his addiction, he
would've volunteered and then tried to "beat the system."

"I think jail is one of the biggest deterrents there is," he said. "No one
who has been to jail wants to go back."

The drug prevention committee, however, has seen drug courts working and
keeping people out of jail. According to a study on Shelby County's Drug
Court, about 24 percent of all the drug court graduates were re-arrested
within a three-year period. About 80 percent of a random sampling of those
facing drug charges in jail and not in the drug court program were
re-incarcerated, Anderson said, referring to a study printed in The
Commercial Appeal.

Hart, however, will make his final determination about drug court after a
year has gone by. But he is being cautiously optimistic.

"If one person benefits from it, it will be worth it," he said.

Arrest warrants

Arrest warrants issued and processed in city court except for traffic
violations:

- - July 1997 to June 1998: 3,911

- - July 1998 to June 1999: 5,217

- - July 1999 to June 2000: 5,890

- - July 200 to June 2001: 7,099 Costs

Costs per person per year:

- - In drug court program: $2,500

- - In county jail: $18,000 State money

State grant money requested:

- - First year: $89,587

- - Second year: $100,000

- - Third year: $100,000

- - Fourth year: $100,000 City and county governments provide a 25 percent
match each year.

Requirements

- - Eligibility: Non-violent offenders who have a drug and/or alcohol addiction

- - Sentence: Offenders receive a suspended sentence, but volunteer for the
12- to 18-month program and abide by rules.

Rules:

- - Attend alcohol and drug treatments and Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous
meetings weekly

- - See their probation officer weekly

- - Submit to random drug screenings weekly

- - Report to judge weekly

- - Enroll in school or earn a part-time job