STATE'S SECOND JUVENILE DRUG COURT TO OPEN

ENID -- Research tells Mike Fields that juvenile drug courts are sweeping
the nation. The assistant district attorney is just glad Garfield County is
part of the program.

The city of Enid, in conjunction with Garfield County, will open its first
juvenile drug court in January.

The court will be the second of its kind in Oklahoma.

"Where Oklahoma is now, I'd say we're ahead of the game when it comes to
drug courts," Fields said. "Crystal ball-wise, I'd say this is the wave of
the future."

Beckham County became Oklahoma's first juvenile drug court to open in
February 1998. In July, the county received a $183,000 federal grant to
ensure its life for another 18 months.

Enid and Garfield County received a $350,000 implementation grant for a
juvenile drug court last year. Seminole District Judge Jerry Colclazier is
reportedly also interested in the juvenile drug court for his jurisdiction.

Associate District Judge Doug Haught said the appeal is rather simple.

"A lot of juvenile crimes are associated with drug use," Haught said. "If
we can help fix the drug problem, we can reduce the juvenile docket."

Fields says he and his associates are motivated by an even broader theory.

"The hard-core drug addicts who commit juvenile crimes end up serving their
time and then getting out," Fields said. "Then they become hard-core drug
addicts committing adult crimes. Our broader hope is that we can eventually
reduce adult crimes."

Haught and Fields point out several hurdles must be taken before juvenile
drug courts are widely accepted in Oklahoma.

One potential roadblock is the defined roles of the participants. The
judge, attorneys, treatment providers and additional support team members
work closely with the drug-abusing juvenile's problem.

"I think that scares some jurisdictions," Fields said. "There is a change
of roles for so many different people. Defense attorneys and prosecutors no
longer work against each other, but instead work together."

Another potential negative is the case workload.

In Beckham County, Haught and his staff donated Thursday evenings for
nearly two years to meet with the program's juveniles.

"That really hasn't been an issue here," Fields said. "We're probably
talking about a docket of 25 kids for another hour of work. That's not very
much, but then again if we're talking about a larger county like Oklahoma
City or Tulsa, I'm sure that would become an issue."