DRUG COURT HELPS ADDICTS STAY CLEAN

702 People Are Enrolled In Programs Statewide

LEXINGTON -- Nearly 800 Kentuckians charged with drug crimes have gone
through drug court and avoided prison or jail since 1993.

But while 42 counties are served by programs to treat adults, juveniles and
families, only 11 of those are in eastern Kentucky, where state health
officials call drug abuse an epidemic.

Those who go through drug court follow a strict, life-changing program that
state officials say is working. And they saved taxpayers more than $11
million, Joanie Abramson, acting manager of the drug court program for the
state Administrative Office of the Courts, told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Drug courts divert some non-violent drug addicts from the prison system
into treatment designed to solve the problems that landed them in court in
the first place.

To graduate, they must hold jobs or take classes; pay restitution and child
support if necessary; and attend meetings with judges who volunteer their
time. They also undergo inpatient or outpatient drug counseling and stay
drug-free.

A 2001 study of drug court participants in Jefferson, Fayette and Warren
counties, found that a year after graduation, only 3.7 percent of graduates
from the three programs had been convicted of felonies, compared with 11
percent of those who didn't complete the program.

"I think it's a great program," said T.K. Logan, an assistant professor in
the University of Kentucky's department of behavioral sciences. "It gives
people the opportunity. They can make a real difference in their lives."

But not every county has access to the program.

Statewide, 2,842 people have participated in one of Kentucky's 20 drug
court programs since Jefferson County began its program in 1993. A little
more than a quarter have graduated. Today, there are 702 people enrolled in
state drug court programs.

An additional 17 drug courts -- representing 33 counties -- are in the
planning or pilot stages but haven't launched formal programs with full
funding. It takes about a year to get a program up and running, Abramson
said. Plus, grants and other sources of funding are needed.

In Perry County, a pilot drug court program hasn't yet received federal
funding. Everyone involved in trying to help 10 clients volunteers his or
her time, from Circuit Judge Douglas C. Combs Jr. to a defense attorney,
counselors and a probation officer.

Combs said he's gotten a new perspective from the closer supervision of
drug offenders that drug court requires.

"They're no longer just a case number," Combs said. "I actually see them
more as a person with real problems."