DRUG-COURT FUNDING: WISE INVESTMENT

We do not do this lightly - suggest that a program cut from New Jersey's
deficit-ridden budget be restored.

But the state's so-called "drug courts" are a special case.

Gov. James E. McGreevey's proposed $23.7 billion budget includes no money
for the expansion of the drug-court program to the eight counties -
including Cape May and Atlantic - that are not currently in the program.

The failure to have drug courts operating in all 21 counties - which was
supposed to happen by July 1 - could lead to disparate treatment of drug
users based on where they are arrested and raise serious questions of
fairness.

In the drug-court program, a judge leads a team of lawyers, probation
officers and drug-treatment professionals who work together to see that an
addict gets treatment and then stays off drugs. It isn't an easy program for
the user - they must complete an in-patient addiction program, submit to
repeated drug tests and remain under intense supervision for five years.

But the program works. Instead of sending another nonviolent drug user to
New Jersey's prisons - where one-third of the inmates are incarcerated for
drug offenses and where the chances of rehabilitation are low - addicts are
helped back into mainstream society.

State courts administrator Richard Williams is now asking lawmakers to
provide $2 million - it's not much - to expand drug courts to the remaining
counties by April 2004. If the money doesn't come, here's what could happen:

An addict caught in Ocean County, which has a drug court up and running,
faces five years of intensive supervision and an excellent shot at
rehabilitation. The same addict caught in Cape May County would more likely
face prison.

Some are worried that such disparate treatment would violate the 14th
Amendment, which guarantees an individual's right to equal protection under
the law - a fundamental tenet of our legal system.

If that doesn't sway you, how about this: It costs about half as much to
fund treatment and supervision through a drug-court program than it does to
keep someone in prison.

And if that doesn't convince you, listen to what Robert Gasser said back in
February. He is an assistant Ocean County prosecutor who works with the drug
court in that county:

"This is the greatest thing I've worked on in my career. I see lives
changing."

Restore the $2 million. It's a sound investment.