JUDGE'S DRUG ORDER IGNORED

The Associated Press

BAY MINETTE, Ala. - A Baldwin County judge has ordered the Alabama
Department of Corrections to explain why it hasn't complied with his order
to create a drug treatment program for women prisoners on par with one
available to men.

But a prosecutor said state prison officials likely will argue that Circuit
Judge Robert Wilters does not have the authority to issue such an order.

"That's not the normal place that you argue these issues," Baldwin County
District Attorney David Whetstone told The Mobile Register for a story Tuesday.

Wilters issued his directive in April, when he revoked Collene Dyas'
probation after she tested positive for drugs in February.

The judge ordered Dyas to serve her 10-year prison sentence on a 2000
cocaine possession conviction. Attached to that sentence was an order
stating the Department of Corrections had 30 days to start offering
treatment comparable to the New Outlook Therapeutic Community program
available to male prisoners.

After the deadline passed without any action, Dyas' defense attorney, John
Beck, filed motions asking Wilters to make state officials "show cause" why
they have not complied with his order and to amend the sentence to allow
Dyas to enter a private recovery facility.

"We just wanted to get her into treatment," Beck said.

Wilters has scheduled a hearing for July 31 and sent subpoenas to
Corrections Commissioner Donal Campbell, St. Clair Correctional Facility
Warden Ralph Hook and Wade Wofford, director of the Therapeutic Community
program at St. Clair.

Lawyers for the prison system have not yet responded to the subpoena.
Prisons spokesman Brian Corbett said he does not know how officials will
answer.

Corbett said funding constraints make offering every program at every
prison impossible, but he added that Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka,
where Dyas was transferred June 18, offers a drug treatment program
identical to the Therapeutic Community program except that it lasts six
months instead of a year.

Whetstone said private lawsuits would be a more effective way to change the
state prison system rather than directives attached to sentencing orders.

"The judges have become frustrated at the lack of programs available for
them to utilize. So they try to create them by judicial order," he said.