CRITICS CALL DRUG COURT JUDGE'S PAY UNFAIR

COLUMBIA -- A lawyer who state Sen. John Land "fought hard" to get
appointed is the only judge in the state to be paid a salary to run a
drug court full time, state records show.

This year, the judge, Bobbie Reaves, Land's former law partner, will
be paid $110,000, a salary on par with the state's Circuit Court
judges who handle criminal and civil cases.

Land, who has represented the Clarendon and Sumter district in the
General Assembly for 26 years and was Senate majority leader until the
Republicans took control last year, said Reaves deserves the salary
and that she did not win the job because of her professional
connections to him.

"I was proud to promote her because I thought she was well qualified
and her interest is there," Land said.

Reaves, who oversees drug court in Clarendon, Sumter, Lee and
Williamsburg counties, said she has advocated for a drug court in her
area for several years and was among a group that traveled to Kansas
City in 1999 to view drug courts there.

She said she got the job on merit.

"It's certainly money well spent," she said. "It's a successful
program. What we're doing is putting families back together."

Five people have graduated from the program thus far in Williamsburg
and Clarendon counties, and she is monitoring 15 to 20 other cases,
she said.

Judges in other drug courts around the state, including Judge Charles
B. Simmons Jr. of Greenville County, volunteer their time, though they
are paid between $55,000 and $113,000 for their work as regular judges
in family, circuit, magistrate and probate courts.

One county, York, pays a local defense attorney $20,000 a year to work
part time as a drug court judge, according to the Solicitor's Office
there.

Drug courts were designed to help guide drug users back into a stable
and productive family life through treatment and support, and charges
are dropped when the defendant completes the program.

Clarendon County pays for Reaves' office space and utilities, she
said, and other agencies are assisting with support services for those
in the program.

Simmons, a master-in-equity judge who has worked three years in drug
court without pay for those duties, holds court each Thursday at 5:30,
after he finishes his other court work.

"Would it be good to be compensated financially? Yes," he said. "Would
it stop me from doing it if I wasn't? Obviously, no."

Several lawmakers questioned Reaves' salary. They said judges in each
of the state's 16 judicial circuits should be treated the same.

"I think if there is money spent on drug courts, it should be spread
in an even manner," said House Speaker David Wilkins of Greenville.

State Rep. Al Robinson, an Easley Republican who has examined drug
court costs as part of his work chairing a budget panel on criminal
justice, said paying only one judge "appears to be
inequitable."

"I think those judges who do this out of their own good graces deserve
to be commended," he said. "I am a little disturbed that we have one
judge who is paid the salary of a Family Court judge."

The money was allocated last year by the Prosecution Coordination
Commission, a state board that acts as the administrative and lobbying
arm of prosecutors. The Solicitors Association had asked the
commission for $150,000 for Lexington County's longtime drug court and
that the other 15 circuits split $850,000.

Land appealed to the commission to allocate $150,000 to his area as
well, according to minutes of the meeting. The state's other circuits
got $50,000 each for drug programs. Land said he was happy to
recommend Reaves, who began working for him 30 years ago as his legal
secretary, then became his partner after she graduated from law school.

Solicitor Walter Bailey of Summerville said he quit as president of
the Solicitors Association last year because the prosecution
commission did not honor the association's recommendation. He said he
considers the decision to fund Reaves' office an affront to the
association.

South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal, who appointed
Reaves a drug court judge, said the Prosecution Coordination
Commission makes funding decisions.

"I was asked to issue an order to allow the person who was operating
as the head of that drug court to be the judge of that drug court,"
she said.

Paying a salary to every judge in drug court would be ideal, she said,
but the money has not been available.

"It's all a matter of how much money you want to put in this type of
alternative program," she said. "Whether this particular one works or
it's the best way to do it, that's up to the Legislature."

She said comprehensive drug court legislation has been introduced in
recent years but has not passed because of a lack of funding.

Bailey, in a letter to prosecutors explaining his resignation, said
the commission ignored the vote of the solicitors and approved a
funding plan that was inequitable at a time when budget shortfalls
were hurting prosecutors.

"I am concerned that money which should be earmarked for our primary
mission, prosecuting criminal cases, is being diverted in one form or
another to various programs and employees which benefit specific
judicial circuits at the expense of the remainder," he wrote.

Robinson said he wants lawmakers to examine the issue.

"I think as long as the judges are willing to volunteer their time,
they can't help but be effective," he said. "I'm a little concerned we
have allowed one to be paid when everybody else is a volunteer."

Bailey said his circuit, which includes Calhoun, Dorchester and
Orangeburg counties, can't afford a drug court.

"I think my primary obligation is to get prosecutors in court to put
violent offenders away," he said. "We pretty much accomplish what a
drug court accomplishes in pretrial intervention."