DRUG OFFENDERS FACE JUDGE

General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland started a project Wednesday that
could take the rest of his career to complete as Metro's first General
Sessions Drug Court opened with five clients.

Moreland wants to provide drug addicts - second, third and fourth time
offenders on their way to jail - with one last chance to clean up. But they
have to want to clean up.

"We are going to attempt to treat these addicts," Moreland said. "Through
the drug court they are going to get the treatment through our Day
Reporting Center coupled with intensive judicial supervision that's the key
component of drug court."

"They will be getting weekly drug screens through Phase One; they will be
coming back to court and seeing my smiling face every week," he said. "If
they have slipped up, they have got to answer for it on a weekly basis.
There will be sanctions if they have done bad, and there will be pats on
the back if they have done well. And sometimes more than just pats on the
back."

A drug court at the General Sessions level has been in the planning stages
for the past several years, he said, to deal with offenders who fall
through the cracks or don't qualify for Judge Seth Norman's nationally
recognized drug court at the felony level.

Norman's court, now with hundreds of clients, has won national awards and
earned him invitations to speak all over the country regarding his experiences.

Moreland, who was recently elected presiding judge, said, "We saw a need
for a misdemeanor drug court. We have individuals that maybe don't commit
the felonies but have the same drug addictions."

Clients have to be recommended by their probation officer or the judge and
then accepted by Moreland into the program.

The offenders are typically crack, crystal-meth and cocaine addicts, he said.

If a client reaches Phase Two, the frequency of coming to court is reduced
to once every two weeks. Phase three is once a month, he said.

"It could be a year to 18 months to get through the drug court," Moreland
said. "It's an intensive program. We've had some that we have offered to
come through the program and said they would rather do their year in jail.
We've had some that just say they can't clean up, they can't do what we
want them to do."

Drug court clients will be asked to get their GED, do public service work,
and pay small user fees while in the program.

They will be assessed on their knowledge of life skills such as what to
wear to a job interview and how to balance a checkbook, he said.

"If they don't already have those skills, we are going to teach them those
skills," Moreland said. "That way, when they get out of drug court, they
can go get a job and be clean and hopefully the goal is that we won't see
them back in court as a defendant."

"You have got to treat the problem. You can arrest them; you can put them
in jail. You are going to have to eventually let them out."

Moreland said Drug Court is starting small with existing funds. It is an
extra docket; he is not receiving any additional pay.

Likewise, the probation officers, court officers, district attorneys,
public defenders and sheriff's department employees at the Day Reporting
Center are also doing double duty to make the program a reality in its
infant stages.

"I think that is a reflection on these public servants trying to make the
system work for the benefit of Davidson County," Moreland said.

"I think we need to fund it. We can probably do it with existing funds with
a very small number of clients but we can't make a dent in the problem
until we expand."