RHODE ISLAND DRUG COURT AWARDED MONEY TO CONTINUE OPERATING

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Katie Carroll became so addicted to prescription
painkillers after graduating from high school that she'd swallow 60
pills a day to feed her habit.

She was arrested three times for writing fake prescriptions. But
instead of standing trial, Carroll, 25, was referred to the state's
adult drug court, where she has spent the last two years in a rigorous
regimen of treatment, urine screens and status reviews before a judge.

"If it wasn't for the drug court, I would probably be dead. I know
that," Carroll said.

Until recently, the fate of the program had been up in the air.
Federal grants that had sustained it had expired, and Gov. Don
Carcieri, facing a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars, did not
recommend funding for it in his 2008 budget.

But the court received a late reprieve in the form of a $636,000
federal grant that will help it operate for another year, said Craig
Berke, a spokesman for the state judiciary. The court had sought
$500,000 from the General Assembly, but was allotted $210,000 under a
budget proposal submitted Friday by the House Democrats.

"The drug court saves the state money," said program manager Matt
Weldon. "It saves the federal government money and it saves lives. And
if we can get money ... we're very happy about that."

The drug court began operating after receiving a $500,000 grant from
the U.S. Justice Department in 2001. But that award expired last
August, and another federal grant that paid for staff members'
salaries and benefits ran out earlier this year.

Proponents who view the court as a proven way to restore addicts to
sobriety and divert them from the state prison, where the population
has spiked dramatically in the last year, worried the court would fold
without continued funding.

Among the court's advocates is A.T. Wall, director of the state
corrections department, which assigns two probation officers to the
court. The inmate population at the state prison has approached
capacity, and hit an all-time high of 3,881 several weekends ago.
State officials are brainstorming ways to cut the number of prisoners,
and funding the drug court should be an option, supporters said.

"If the state doesn't decide to make some changes now, we will exceed
our capacity in the coming years and be forced to build more prisons,"
Wall said.

The program caters to severe addicts who would likely end up in
prison. Weldon said the number of eligible participants has been
limited by federal restrictions barring drug dealers and people with
convictions for violent felonies from participating.

Advocates say the court could broaden its eligibility criteria and
enroll more people who might otherwise be incarcerated, if it received
funding from the state.

"Without those restrictions, it might have a greater impact," Wall
said. "However, even as it operates now, it provides the kind of
option that's needed as an alternative to incarceration."

There are about 1,700 drug courts operating in the United States, but
only one of its kind in Rhode Island, according to the Bureau of
Justice Assistance, a component of the federal Justice Department.

Weldon said he assumed the program would have had to shut down without
new funding from the state or federal government, though he said it
was possible that current participants would have been assigned
another judge to monitor their progress until they were able to
complete the program.

Now, though, "We will have enough money, certaintly, to take on new
participants and reopen the door, so to say," Weldon said.

The financial strains were already being felt. The program has 57
active participants, down from a peak of roughly 140 earlier last
year, and it accepts only those who have insurance or can pay for
their own treatment, Weldon said.

Participants are referred to the program, often by their lawyers, and
agree to plead no contest to the charges against them. The sentence is
stayed if they complete the mandatory treatment, random drug screens,
court appearances and seek a job or an educational program.

After 12 months of continued sobriety, they can "graduate" from the
program and have the charges dismissed.

"We feel that in many cases, we're able to successfully return people
as productive members of society, so they can leave this program, and
they can go back and lead productive lives and be employed and
function in society," said Magistrate Gordon Smith, who reviews the
participants' progress.

On a recent Thursday, a young male participant told Smith he was
working to get his life together and had to sever ties with friends
who weren't good for him. The judge nodded approval.

"If I send you to jail," Smith said, "do you think any of them are
going to volunteer to go with you?"

Carroll told Smith about her recent trip to Arizona and the two
discussed her progress from a year ago, when a series of tainted urine
screens briefly landed her in prison.

"You're getting there, huh?" the judge asked.

Sober for the last year and working as a restaurant waitress, Carroll
expects to graduate from the program soon. She credits the court's
tough love approach - including forcing her into prison - with turning
her life around.

"I would do anything I could to help keep this going," she says,
"because if there wasn't a drug court, I don't know where I'd be."