WATAUGA-AVERY MAKE DRUG COURT PLANS

Watauga and Avery counties are in the early planning stages to establish a
new court and treatment program to deal with drug and alcohol addicts who
find themselves trapped by their addiction and facing the traditional court
system.

Kirstin Frescoln, Youth and Family Treatment Court Specialist with the N.C.
Administrative Office of the Courts, said that a planning committee, under
the direction of District Court Judge Alexander Lyerly, is discussing the
establishment of a Drug Treatment Court (DTC).

She said that the establishment of a drug treatment court requires the
involvement and cooperation of the district and superior courts, the office
of the district attorney, the criminal defense bar, the department of social
services and any drug treatment operations in the county.

"With the number of clandestine meth labs discovered in Watauga County we
thought that it would be a good area to establish a drug court," Frescoln
said.

DTCs currently are running in Buncombe, Caswell, Catawba, Craven, Durham,
Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Orange, Person, Randolph and
Wake counties.

Frescoln said that the county planning group has agreed to go through a
federal planning process and that the planning group will be trained by
federal instructors to teach other county personnel and agencies.

Frescoln said, "Drug courts work with criminal offenders who are addicted to
drugs or alcohol. They assess the offender and the DA (district attorney)
approves a community based program.

"The program involves intensive out-patient treatment, usually up to nine
hours a week. The offenders are assigned a case manager and a comprehensive
treatment plan is prepared and presented."

Frescoln said that the plan addresses, not only drug and alcohol treatment,
but psychological treatment, employment skills, parenting and housing
problems as needed.

Individual, group and family outpatient treatment, inpatient treatment,
12-step programs, GED, literacy classes, continued education services,
budgeting, vocational rehabilitation, human resources development, housing
services, anger management, and parenting classes are among the services
available to many county programs.

Watauga and Avery counties are in the early stages of the planning and
establishment process for the creation of a drug court, Frescoln said, but
they are ahead of many other communities in the early planning stages.

Information on the North Carolina Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs) said that
they were "established to hold chemically addicted offenders rigorously
accountable for complying with court ordered treatment services."

They are described as problem-solving courts that bring together intensive
judicial supervision, substance abuse treatment and other health services as
a team to both work with the addict and hold the addict's feet to the
treatment fire.

Additional information on the DTC program may be found online at: the NC
drug court web page: www.nccourts.org/Citizens/CPrograms/DTC/Default.asp
and: drug court planning initiative: www.dcpi.ncjrs.org/index.html.