DRUG COURTS MAY LOSE FUNDING

Wire and Staff Report News & Record

Guilford County's drug treatment court faces funding cuts that could leave
it scrambling to stay afloat next year.

Legislators in Raleigh are negotiating a new state budget that could leave
drug courts across North Carolina in peril.

The Senate's version of the spending bill eliminates nearly all the
operational budget of slightly more than $1 million for the programs.

Should this happen, it would be bad timing for Guilford officials, who soon
will become dependent on state money alone.

A federal grant that funded the Guilford program runs out next March, said
Wheaton Casey, the county's drug court administrator.

The state Administrative Office of the Courts has said it will be able to
fund only one of the two current staff positions, she said. But that won't
kick in until the fiscal year that begins July 2006, leaving a gap for
several months, she said.

And the state offered no money to pay for drug treatment programs, Casey
said. That includes detoxification or daylong counseling treatment that
some participants require but cannot afford, she said.

The county spent $27,000 on such programs through May of this fiscal year,
Casey said.

"I am worried about the treatment dollars," Casey said.

Drug court is an option offered to some nonviolent offenders charged with
drug and alcohol-related crimes.

Studies have found them to be much more effective than traditional drug
treatment programs.

State Sen. Scott Thomas, a Craven County Democrat who oversees justice and
public safety budgeting for his chamber, thinks the courts can be run with
existing resources and untapped federal drug treatment money.

But without state money, Mecklenburg County officials say they'll have to
shut down their drug courts by Oct. 1.

Mecklenburg opened the state's first drug court in 1996. Today, it handles
more offenders than in any other in North Carolina and has been held up as
a national model.

A state study released in March reported 2004 graduation rates of 35
percent and a retention rate of more than 65 percent for all North Carolina
drug courts.

That might appear low, but national studies have found 80 percent to 90
percent of drug abusers don't even make it to the one-year mark of
traditional treatment programs.

Thirty-one people currently are in Guilford's drug court program.

Studies of the nation's more than 1,100 drug courts show participants are
substantially less likely to be rearrested or convicted than nonparticipants.

One recent national study, which included drug court graduates from North
Carolina, found only 16.4 percent of 17,000 drug court graduates had been
rearrested and charged with a felony.

Estimates of money saved by drug courts -- which can substitute for
incarceration and are aimed at preventing future arrests, trials and prison
time -- vary, but supporters agree the long-term payoff is substantial.

The question of whether to continue state funding for drug courts now is
before a committee working on a compromise spending plan. House and Senate
negotiators are trying to reconcile differences between their versions of
the budget.

Thomas said proposed cuts in the Senate's recommended budget wouldn't mean
the end of drug courts.

"It was our intent for the drug treatment courts to continue to exist with
existing personnel," he said.

Critics dismiss that logic.

"It's incredible to me that the legislature would pass up the opportunity
.. to treat defendants and avoid the recidivism that we've had for so many
years with drug and DWI defendants for the relatively minor amount of money
the drug courts need to operate," said Phil Howerton, a Mecklenburg
District Court judge.

The 15 adult drug courts in 14 judicial districts around the state -- from
Avery and Watauga counties in the mountains to New Hanover County at the
coast -- served 1,002 participants in 2004.

Participants undergo at least a year of intensive group and individual
counseling.

They are required to find work, pay $10 a week toward the costs of their
treatment, and are monitored with regular drug and blood-alcohol tests.
They can graduate with charges dismissed and probation terminated only if
they have been clean for three to six months.

Those not making the grade face consequences, including jail time.

Staff writer Eric Collins and The Associated Press contributed to this report.