DRUG COURT SCORES NEW FUNDS

Hardin County will share nearly $1.3 million given to state drug court
programs, officials said Wednesday.

The money from the Kentucky Justice Cabinet's Edward Byrne Memorial Grant
Fund will go toward personnel salaries, treatment costs and operational
expenses in 16 county drug courts.

The money will be divvied up based on each program's needs, said Hardin
District Judge Kimberly Shumate, one of the judges overseeing the local
system. She said Hardin County's share, though it hasn't been specified,
will be enough to keep the program going.

Drug court is mostly funded through grants and Fiscal Court allocations.

"If we had not gotten this grant funding, we would not have been able to
continue," Shumate said.

Hardin County's system began in 1999 with a court focused on misdemeanors.
A felony drug court started last year.

The effort enables drug offenders to avoid time in jail by completing a
court-supervised substance abuse program. It also mandates that
participants hold down full-time jobs, attend counseling and be subject to
routine drug testing.

Those who continue to abuse drugs or violate program policies can be booted
out of the program and jailed.

Besides Shumate, the local program is overseen by Hardin Circuit Judge
Kelly Easton and District Judge John Simcoe.

The system, which began in 1993, has saved the state an estimated $11.3
million and handled the cases of 859 offenders who otherwise would have
been incarcerated, said Joseph Lambert, chief justice of the Kentucky
Supreme Court.