DRUG PROGRAM EARNS FUNDING

A court program designed to divert drug-addicted offenders in Pitt
County from jail to the straight life through intensive treatment
should begin running on state dollars once the 2008 fiscal budget
passes, court officials said. Gregg Stahl, deputy director of the
N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, said roughly $60,000 could
be in the hands of local Drug Treatment Court officials by August.

A court program designed to divert drug-addicted offenders in Pitt
County from jail to the straight life through intensive treatment
should begin running on state dollars once the 2008 fiscal budget
passes, court officials said. Gregg Stahl, deputy director of the
N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, said roughly $60,000 could
be in the hands of local Drug Treatment Court officials by August.

Stahl said the figure accounts for coordinator salary, benefits and
operating costs.

For nearly two years, the program has run on about $50,000 in federal
grant monies secured through the Pitt County Sheriff's Office, said
Melissa Larson, grant writer for the office.

Since its start, the program has mirrored criteria laid out by the
AOC for state-funded drug courts.

The close attention to detail and the high probability of success
noted by AOC staff during a recent visit qualified Pitt for the
funding, Stahl said. "From all we can tell, they have gotten off to a
good start," Stahl said of Pitt's drug-court program. "It should be
an easy transition." Pitt joins four other drug courts in North
Carolina set to receive funding when the state budget is passed. The
funding -- which would have typically been available July 1 -- has
been delayed due to continuing budget discussions, Stahl said.

As a result, Larson applied for and received a three-month extension
to the federal grant from the Governor's Crime Commission that will
allow the program to continue through September if the budget has not
yet been passed. Money not used will be returned to the crime
commission, she said. Once funds go through, the Pitt court will be
among about 30 like it in North Carolina to be funded by the state
after meeting AOC guidelines, Stahl said. Participants to the drug
court program are nonviolent drug-addicted offenders typically
referred to the program by court officials or law enforcement
officers. Most suffer from addictions to cocaine, marijuana and
heroin. During the program, which takes a year or more to complete,
participants submit to regular counseling meetings, random drug tests
and biweekly court sessions, making the program more challenging than
regular probation. The sheriff's office has collaborated with the
Public Defender's Office, the Department of Community Corrections,
the Pitt County District Attorney's Office and PORT Human Services to
serve offenders.

Carl Cogdell, DTC coordinator, said the court has seen three
graduates since its start. A fourth is due to graduate in late
August. Of these graduates, Cogdell said, one has relapsed.

The slip-up has caused the group to begin discussion of an after-care
program through Treatment and Accountability for Safer Communities,
or TASC, that would call for graduates to meet one day a month for
continued support in staying clean, he said.

With a July implementation planned, Cogdell said he, probation
officer Bill Woolard and Dawn Ellis, lead TASC manager -- who aid in
the program already -- would volunteer to lead the sessions, rotating
duties monthly. "You want to build a rapport and friendship with
these people," he said. "When you start seeing people making those
changes in life ... that's the most rewarding thing you can ever do."

"You want to keep that going," he added. Currently, about 16
offenders are being aided during the biweekly Friday court sessions, he said.

State funding will nearly double the numbers typically seen in the
court, Cogdell said, bringing attendance closer to 30.

It also will take Cogdell's post from a part-time county position to
a full-time state job.

Though little other change will come with the funding, Cogdell is
confident the progress will give the program a more stable footing.
"It gives the program more respect," Cogdell said, "knowing it's
there, it's within the budget, it's part of the court system, and
it's not hanging out there. It gives the peace of mind (that) we are
going to be here for a long time."