DRUG COURT PARTICIPANTS HELP WITH FUND DRIVE

GREENUP Participants in Greenup and Lewis county drug court will spend some
of their spare time trying to raise money for charity during May, which is
National Drug Court Month.

They'll do it by coordinating the collection of pop-can tabs, which they'll
donate to the Ronald McDonald House. The house, which provides lodging to
families of seriously ill hospital patients, recycles the tabs and uses the
money for its operations.

Kentucky's drug courts are a court-supervised treatment program for
non-violent drug offenders. They work to curb relapse rates while also
avoiding the cost of putting offenders in prison.

The Greenup/Lewis drug court graduated its first 11 participants last month.

The pop-tab project is a perfect fit for most drug court participants, said
coordinator Julie Ilhardt.

She was looking for a project that would get them involved in the community
but not conflict with legitimate obligations. "Many of our people work
every day so we needed to find community involvement that fit in with
that," Ilhardt said.

The participants can not only save the tabs at home but can encourage
people in their workplace and businesses they frequent to save them, she
said. And they can help coordinate regular pickups of the tabs at
collection points.

The project is part of a month of observances of the successes of drug
courts, according to a statement from the Kentucky Administrative Office of
the Courts. Drug courts were first implemented in the state in 1993 and
since then have saved the state $14.5 million by putting offenders through
the program rather than sending them to prison, according to the statement.

The program works by developing individual plans that include specific
responsibilities and goals. Participants are subject to random urine tests.
The program is overseen by a judge; in Greenup and Lewis counties by
Circuit Judge Lewis D. Nicholls, who rewards progress and punishes
non-compliance.

Successful completion of the program makes participants eligible for
probation or dismissal of charges.