LEGISLATURE SHOULD FUND DRUG COURTS; LOOK AT JURY DUTY AS AN OPPORTUNITY

With prison costs rapidly escalating in Mississippi, legislators are
expected to take a look next year at the successful drug courts being
operated here in the McComb area and a few other spots in the state.

Circuit Judge Keith Starrett, who started the local drug court, thinks they
will.

"Our drug court follows the national model and our Legislature is
desperately looking for ways to more efficiently handle the inmate
population and reduce recidivism," Starrett wrote in a recent report to
county supervisors. "Drug courts fill the bill....."

Currently, Pike, Lincoln and Walthall counties share $25,000 in annual
costs of the program, supplemented by a grant from the Department of Public
Safety. The Legislature would be wise to implement a program to fund the
courts statewide.

Instead of being imprisoned, people who qualify for drug court - nonviolent
offenders hooked on drugs or alcohol - are given the chance to stay out of
jail by attending weekly sessions, wearing a drug patch to insure they stay
off forbidden substances, holding a job, paying fees and meeting other
requirements.

From all reports, it's working.

In fact, one participant apparently is glad he's in the program. During
recent group session, Judge Starrett offered $100 to anyone who could tell
him something good that had ever come from drug or alcohol abuse. He was
surprised when Chris McCullough told him drug court. "If I had never been
on drugs and alcohol I would never have been in this program and I never
would have got my life straightened out," the judge was told.