DRUG COURT MOVES TO NEW $3 MILLION BORDEAUX SITE

The 3-year-old Davidson County Drug Court residential treatment program is
packing up and moving.

For the past week, residents have been packing computers, supplies and
furniture and moving them from Drug Court's first home, the old Middle
Tennessee Mental Health Institute near Nashville International Airport, to
a $3 million facility adjacent to Bordeaux Hospital.

The residential treatment program is being booted out of two old, brick
buildings it uses to make way for a Dell computer complex being built on
the Murfreesboro Road property.

The new complex, designed to hold 60 men and 40 women, was funded by
federal relocation funds tied to the Dell deal.

Drug offenders who enter the program are required to complete it as a
condition of being placed in community corrections, which is a highly
structured form of probation authorized by state law. If they violate the
rules, they will have to serve some or all of their original sentence.

Rusty Frohmuth is among the 100 residents who are closely monitored, given
frequent drug tests and required to participate in the treatment program.

"It's treatment instead of time," Frohmuth said. "I could have gone to jail
and been out doing what I was doing before. Being here has helped build up
my self-esteem and courage, while helping me deal with life's everyday
problems."

Officials say the move offers a new image and higher hopes at the same time
funding remains a concern.

"We've got adequate funding for the people we have in the program right
now, but that is federal funding that will run out," said Mike Jones, Drug
Court administrator.

The state gave the program $100,000 its first year. That has since been cut
to $70,000, the amount received this year.

Drug Court costs $1.1 million a year to run, receiving about 80% of its
funding from the federal government. Metro contributes about $52,000 a
year. Drug Court also gets $55,000 a year from United Way, about $30,000
from the Memorial Hospital Foundation and about $40,000 in room-and-board
fees from residents.

Criminal Court Judge Seth Norman, who began Drug Court, said before the
program could expect funding, it would have to develop a track record.

Of the 300 people admitted to the two-year program, 75 have graduated. Of
those, seven have been rearrested.

The remaining 125 did not finish and were sent back to jail.

"We're extremely satisfied with our results," Norman said. "We'll never be
totally happy until we can get a 100% success rate. But we're happy right now."

After the first three months, residents are allowed to have outside work,
but they must contribute one-third of their take-home pay to their room and
board. The program is open only to nonviolent offenders.