NEW DRUG COURT WILL GIVE OFFENDERS A WAKE-UP CALL

PAINTSVILLE -- Some drug offenders will be dealt with a little differently
beginning this fall with the implementation of a Johnson County Drug Court
- - a federally funded program that gives addicts a "wake-up call" to start
their lives over anew or jail time for those who can't stay off drugs. The
goal of a drug court is to take non-violent drug offenders out of the
traditional court system and make them "productive citizens" following a
stringent, supervised program consisting of court officials who closely
monitor the success of former addicts getting off drugs. In Eastern
Kentucky, where last year's crackdown on OxyContin and other controlled
prescription drugs is having detrimental effects on not only the healthcare
system but also the judicial system, district judges John Kevin Holbrook
and Susan M. Johnson saw the usefulness of a drug court in Johnson County.

The two judges attended orientation and interview training in January, and
conducted a required meeting with other members of the proposed drug court.
Those members include the judges, Clerk Vicki Crace Rice; substance abuse
counselor Roger Pruitt, with Mountain Comprehensive Care; UK research
representative Dr. Matthew Hiller; and public defender Greg Griffith.
Prosecutors Scott Preston and Lynette Muncy and Sheriff Bill Witten will
also be on the drug court team, but they were not present for Friday's
meeting.

"The drug problem we have in Eastern Kentucky is not a moral issue,"
Holbrook said. "It's an addiction." Johnson also noted that the region's
"unique" problem with prescription drug abuse is that many of the
addictions start out with legitimacy - those who become addicted while
under a physician's care. "They don't recognize the problem until it's too
late," Johnson said. In Johnson County, more than 300 felony, 1,000
misdemeanor and 2,000 traffic offenses were filed in 2001.

Many of the cases not directly involving drug offenses, though, are
motivated by substance abuse, a report says. Holbrook said that more than
350 drunk driving cases were opened in 2001 in Johnson County, and that 281
of those cases involved drug abuse. "Obviously we can't do them all in drug
court," Holbrook said about dealing with certain drug-related cases in the
new court.

About 50 cases will be dealt with by the drug court at a time, the judge
said. "If we gave every person charged with a drug offense the maximum
(jail sentence), that's not going to solve the problem," Holbrook said
about repeat offenders. "You're not going to get these people to not
re-offend. An alternate solution to sending every drug offender to jail is
to have them go through the drug court program, which consists of three
levels of treatment and "ideally" takes up to a year to complete. Those who
relapse or continually abuse drugs will be sent to jail for up to two years.

Failure of the program results in immediate jail time, but a participant's
success can result on the disposal of jail terms. "That's what we face - a
prescription drug problem," Holbrook said. A video shown by Holbrook Friday
included the drug courts' success stories and only one case involving a
participant who failed.

That participant was sent directly to jail, but the others received
personal rewards for their efforts to stay off drugs. While sentencing a
new participant to the drug court, a judge on the video warned that "if you
think you're trying to do this to get out of jail time, forget it." One
woman portrayed on the video said she had been busted for drug abuse
several times and lost her children and family to the addiction. "I robbed,
I stole...whatever it took to supply my addiction," she said. "I'm truly
grateful...," she said. "If it hadn't been for drug court, I'd probably be
dead and wouldn't have my baby...my family." "I didn't have a life before
drug court," another woman said. One man who had remained "clean" for about
15 months said, "I feel great.

I feel like I've been reborn again." A police officer on the video
explained that the old concept of dealing with drug offenders was to arrest
them, lock them up and throw away the key. The officer takes an active role
now in motivating some offenders to stay off drugs and get their lives
started over. "It's very rewarding for me to watch her doing so good," the
officer said about a drug court participant.

Another police officer said that "what convinced me" about the success of a
drug court was that prior to the new system of dealing with drug offenders,
police arrested the same people over and over. Now, with the drug court,
police are not seeing the same offenders once they completed the drug court
program. "Seeing them actually improve in front of your eyes and knowing
you have a hand in it, it's very rewarding," one drug court team member
said on the video. The drug court team takes a one-on-one approach to
dealing with each defendant.

"I think we have a responsibility to try and prevent crimes, as well as
prosecute it," Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti said in support
of the drug court. There are currently 482 drug courts operating throughout
the United States. The first drug court was established in 1984 in Dade
County, Florida, by former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. "It's going to
be a success program," Holbrook said Friday about a drug court in Johnson
County. Five Eastern Kentucky judicial districts are currently in the
planning and development phase of drug court implementation. Counties that
have priority for funding of the drug courts are Lewis/Greenup counties;
Boyd County; Perry County; Floyd County; and Johnson County. The Johnson
County Drug Court could be up and running by late September.