DRUG COURTS BECOME A REAL ALTERNATIVE

As Gov.-elect Haley Barbour prepares to take office in January, he faces
the conundrum of his no-new-taxes pledge on the campaign trail against the
reality of a whopping $70 million deficit in the state's Department of
Corrections.

Simply put, Mississippi can't afford to house the prisoners we already have
in the state's penal system - much less the new one's pouring in each day
under the state's "85 percent" rule that mandates that prisoners serve at
least that percentage of their original sentence before being eligible for
parole.

Idea slowly taking hold

One alternative to the runaway costs of operating the state's prison system
is the statewide implementation of drug courts on the model of the
successful program that has been operated in the state's 14th Circuit Court
District by Senior Circuit Judge Keith Starrett since 1999 in Lincoln, Pike
and Walthall counties.

Like Starrett, there are a number of enlightened, pragmatic judges in
Mississippi who have started or are attempting to organize drugs courts in
their venues - including recent converts Madison County Youth Court Judge
William Agin and Eighth District Circuit Judge Vernon Cotton of Carthage -
who serves Leake, Neshoba, Newton and Scott counties.

Drug courts function such that after an offender has been indicted for and
pleads guilty to possession of illegal drugs - excluding repeat or violent
offenders and those charged with sale of drugs - the offender can serve his
sentence through intense supervision and treatment mandated by the court
rather than in prison.

In addition to those cited above, drug courts already function in Hinds,
Hancock, Harrison, Stone, Leflore, Sunflower, Washington, George and Greene
counties. Adams County Youth Court and Ridgeland Municipal Court also have
drug courts.

Five more drug courts are planned to serve Adams, Amite, Franklin,
Wilkinson, Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Tunica, Forrest and Perry counties
and the youth court in Forrest County.

Consider the numbers

How is the drug court experiment working?

The U.S. Justice Department cites the following national statistics:

- - An estimated 61,000 (16 percent) convicted jail inmates committed their
offenses to get money for drugs.

- - An individual who has a severe addiction commits nearly 63 crimes a year.

- - Incarceration of drug-using offenders costs between $20,000 and $50,000
per person per year. The capital costs of building a prison cell can be as
much as $80,000. In contrast, a comprehensive drug court system typically
costs less than $2,500 annually for each offender.

- - In 2001, drug offenders accounted for 20.4 percent of sentenced state
inmates and 55 percent of sentenced federal inmates.

- - Drug use is substantially reduced among defendants while they are
participating in drug court programs. For most participants who graduate
from the programs (ranging from 50 to 65 percent), drug use is eliminated
altogether.

- - According to a preliminary report entitled Estimate of Drug Court
Recidivism Rates - which followed more than 2,000 graduates from 100 drug
courts - the recidivism rate for one year after graduation was 16.4 percent
and 27.5 percent two years after graduation. Figures for individuals who
were imprisoned for drug offenses, instead of entering a drug court, are
43.5 percent and 58.6 percent, respectively.

Some judges and lawmakers around the state reject the worth of drug courts.

But none of those politicians - frightened to be perceived as "soft" on
crime - have offered any advice to taxpayers on how to make up the $70
million Corrections Department deficit