DRUG COURT SUPPORTERS PLEAD CASE

County Asked To Fund Program For Three Years

Supporters of Spokane County's drug court are asking county commissioners
for $375,000 over the next three years to help keep the nationally
acclaimed program operating.

They appeared before commissioners Tuesday to bill the 4-year-old program
as more of an investment than an expense. It emphasizes treatment over jail
for nonviolent drug offenders.

Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen said drug court has helped get hundreds of
people off drugs.

Roughly 60 people a year are enrolled in the program. Eitzen said the rate
of people who reoffend has ranged from 5 percent to 8 percent a year for
those who complete the program. She said it's about 18 percent for those
who don't graduate.

"This gives us a way to let us participate in a process that doesn't throw
away human beings," Eitzen told commissioners. "I believe that drug court
is saving human beings."

Commissioner John Roskelley was emphatic about supporting the program.

"I'm absolutely sold on it," Roskelley said.

But colleagues Phil Harris and Kate McCaslin said they need to study the
proposal more thoroughly. Commissioners may vote on the issue next week.

Drug courts were created in Florida a decade ago to eliminate standard
criminal prosecution in cases of nonviolent drug offenders.

Planning for Spokane's drug court began in 1994, and it started operating
two years later.

The court consists of law enforcement and parole officers, attorneys and
judges who give convicted drug users a chance to quit drugs and straighten
out their lives while avoiding a jail term.

The program lasts one year. To graduate, participants must remain drug-free
during outpatient treatment.

Most of the money to support treatment and drug testing comes from federal
grants. However, local money also is critical to the program, said James
Smith, the drug court's project director.

The federal grant that has supported the drug court expires June 30.

From that point until early fall, the commissioners should give the court
$16,667 so it can qualify for a $50,000 Byrne Memorial Grant, Eitzen said.

That grant is offered through the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse
of the state Department of Social and Health Services. The deadline for
application is Feb. 18.

That potential $66,667 would fund drug court from late June to early fall.
For the fall to the end of the year, the county is being asked to kick in
$72,000.

For 2001 and 2002, Eitzen asked for $143,000 per year in county money,
which potentially would be paired with $300,000 per year in grants from the
federally funded Drug Courts Program Office.

"Spokane is highly regarded for its drug court," Smith said. "But it's a
popular concept and there are now between 500 and 600 of these courts
across the nation competing for federal money."