LAKE COUNTY JUDGES MUST STOP HINDERING ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM

Our opinion: State-Mandated Fees Should Be Paid Out of Bonds Posted By
Defendants.

There is something very wrong when a program designed to curtail drug
abuse is being hamstrung by the judiciary.

No, this isn't the usual wail about judges putting drug pushers and
addicts back on the streets with only a slap on the wrist - an
accusation most often made by hard-liners who don't know the whole
story.

This is about judges refusing to do their part in a justice system
partnership dedicated to a three-pronged approach to ridding Lake
County of the drug culture - education and prevention, treatment and
intervention and law enforcement.

Effective action in all three areas is needed to get the job done.
That's where the Partnership for a Drug Free Lake County, coordinated
by Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter and Sheriff John Buncich,
comes in. But it lacks the money to do a good job.

The state has tried to help. It passed a law requiring judges to assess
a fee of from $200 to $1,000 on everyone convicted of a narcotics
charge and $200 on anyone convicted of drunken driving. The drug
partnership gets 75 percent of the money for operating costs, and the
state gets the remaining 25 percent for drug-related causes.

Along with short-changing the public good, the judges are snubbing the
law. Buncich and Indiana Attorney General Karen Freeman-Wilson say most
judges in Lake County simply aren't assessing the fee.

Considering that Marion County collects $700,000 annually from the fees
and Lake County only manages about $100,000, there is a definite
discrepancy. Freeman-Wilson, a former Gary city judge, admits she
didn't impose the fee during her first two years on the bench because
she didn't know about it.

Judges don't have that excuse now. Partnership representatives met with
judges three years ago, hoping for willing partners, but instead got "a
lukewarm to cold reception," according to Buncich.

Why would judges not want to try a joint effort to do something that
could reduce their heavy caseload and make life better for a lot of
people, including the law-abiding public? Good question.

Buncich and Freeman-Wilson have their suspicions and it doesn't have to
do with anything honorable.

The easiest way to make sure the fee is paid is for judges to order it
to come out of the bond the defendant posts. But lawyers often depend
on bond money for legal fees. It looks like too many judges don't want
to cut into what their compatriots get.

Freeman-Wilson advocates the fee also being accessed when drug- and
alcohol-related charges are plea bargained. Of course, they should.
Plea bargains require an admission of guilt. The state hasn't made that
law yet, but it may have to. Prosecutors already should be making that
a requirement of a plea agreement.

If Lake County wants to kick its reputation, both as a drug haven and a
hotbed for political cronyism, its officials must get serious about
cleaning up the place.