DRUG COURT CONTROVERSY

Reno Trip Stirs Budget Opposition

Morgan Some City Council members are balking at a plan to give the
Beaufort County Drug Court $30,000 this year until Judge Manning Smith
justifies having spent more than $6,000 on a conference in Reno, Nev.,
last May. After the council on Sept. 23 passed first reading of a
budget amendment to support the court, Mayor Bill Rauch faxed Smith a
letter asking for more information about the national drug court conference.

Rauch said he wanted "to make sure the money's being spent in a way
that's consistent with the city's policies and procedures."

Not having received an answer to Rauch's letter, the council Oct. 14
postponed final reading of the budget amendment.

Smith's wife, Elizabeth Smith, the Beaufort County clerk of court,
keeps the Drug Court records. On Friday, she said the court spent
$6,230 to attend the annual conference of the National Association of
Drug Court Professionals.

Both Smiths, the court's program director, two counselors and two
Beaufort County sheriff's deputies attended.

Less than 6 percent of the court's $107,500 fiscal 2003 budget went
toward the conference, according to Elizabeth Smith.

"I'm bulletproof, and so are my people," Manning Smith said last
Monday from his new office on Sams Point Road. He said he hadn't
responded to the council's request for information because he received
the mayor's fax late while in the process of moving from his offices
on North Street.

Smith said he doesn't get paid for his time in Drug Court, and hasn't
since it began in July of 2001. He said he'll go elsewhere to get the
money for this year's budget if he has to, but the city of Beaufort
alone accounts for between 40 percent and 50 percent of his program
participants.

Last year Hilton Head and Beaufort each contributed $30,000 to the
program and Beaufort County contributed $47,500. This year Hilton Head
contributed $33,500, and Beaufort County $47,500.

The city of Beaufort is the only government entity questioning the
court's operations.

Councilman Gary Fordham has joined Rauch in his concern over the Reno
trip. On Friday he said he's concerned the court is "cryin' poor
mouth," then going on trips.

Councilmembers Billy Keyserling and Donnie Beer have remained
supporters of the Drug Court, and Frank Glover has said little about
the court, but voted to pass the first reading of the $30,000 budget
amendment.

The Reno conference, said Beer, is the only Drug Court conference in
the country. "It's like any convention you go to, you go where the
convention is."

Karen Freeman-Wilson, executive director of the National Association
for Drug Court Professionals, said it is the organization's largest
meeting and provides the most comprehensive learning and training
opportunities for all levels of Drug Court employees.

"The reason it works is because we give a damn," Smith said last
week.

Drug Court enrollees are nonviolent offenders who agree to plead
guilty to the charges they face in exchange for an opportunity to
receive treatment for their drug-or alcohol-related addictions while
avoiding jail time. It takes 15 to 18 months to graduate from the program.

Of the 72 people who have signed on since Drug Court started in
Beaufort County, 26 have graduated, 22 have dropped out and 24 remain
enrolled. Dropping out before graduation means going back to court to
face sentencing and possible jail time. Only two Drug Court
participants have been re-arrested.

Smith said it costs approximately $5,000 to send a person through Drug
Court, but $30,000 to keep someone in prison a year.

Nationally, about 22 percent of Drug Court graduates are re-arrested,
compared to a 60 percent to 80 percent re-arrest rate for people sent
straight to jail without an intervention program, he said.