DRUG-COURT NETWORK GETS $4.2 MILLION FOR EXPANSION

Drug offenders across Kentucky could get access to a program to help them
avoid jail within the next couple of years.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher's proposed budget for the next two fiscal years
includes $4.2 million to expand the state's network of drug courts, in
which non-violent offenders undergo drug tests and receive intensive
substance-abuse counseling and increased supervision as an alternative to
prison.

The money to expand the program would come in the second year of the
biennium. Fletcher also proposes spending $6.2 million to replace the
federal money that helped create and maintain the drug courts in a number
of counties. That funding will eventually expire.

If the legislature approves Fletcher's proposal, offenders in every county
would have access to a drug court program if judges and local officials
agree to take part, court officials said.

Thirty-nine counties have access to a drug court now, said Connie Payne,
manager of the program for the Administrative Office of the Courts.

In addition, U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, R-5th, has gotten federal money
appropriated through Operation UNITE to get drug courts started in 22
Eastern and Southern Kentucky counties. Seven other counties in that region
still have federal money for drug courts, said Karen Engle, director of the
UNITE program.

Fletcher and Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, who is developing a plan to combat drug
abuse in Kentucky, have stressed making wider use of drug courts in order
to help addicts and save money by keeping people out of prison.

State officials have said that it costs an average of about $3,000 a year
to put an offender through drug court, compared to $17,000 annually to keep
someone behind bars.