FORT BEND COUNTY PROGRAM IS AIMED AT FIRST-TIME DRUG OFFENDERS

Early in 2002, Fort Bend County will initiate a new drug program that
offers first-time offenders a chance to avoid jail or prison and get
their lives back on track.

"The goal behind the program," says Jim McAlister, an assistant
district attorney, "is to stop the revolving door in which people
continue to come in with drug problems."

The program is a weekly drug court conducted by state District Judge
Bradley Smith, who says his goal is to save tax money by keeping drug
users out of prison.

"It costs the state $40,000 a year to keep someone in jail," Smith said.

Drug courts have been around for years in many parts of the country,
but Smith's court will be different than most because the emphasis
will be on getting the offender immediately into a drug treatment
program.

"It is difficult for people to get off drugs. Once they become
involved, it's easier for them to start violating other laws. They
just don't make good judgments," Smith said.

The program allows a first-time drug offender to enter a guilty plea
but not be sentenced. Instead, sentencing will be reset continually
for a year to 18 months.

During that time, the defendant must enter a treatment program and
agree to drug testing at least twice a week during the first few
months and randomly afterward. He must also pay the cost.

If the person completes the program, the prosecutor asks the judge to
dismiss the charge. The guilty plea is withdrawn and the defendant
has no record of a conviction.

To be eligible for the drug court, the person must be accused of a
relatively minor drug offense - either a state jail felony or a
third-degree felony.

Besides giving prosecutors a chance to reduce their caseloads, the
program provides them with a means to direct people away from a life
of drugs and crime.

In the past, those caught using drugs are placed on probation or sent
to jail, said McAlister, a prosecutor who has handled hundreds of
drug cases over the past 10 years.

"When they get out, they go back with their old friends and start the
same thing. In six months or a year, we see them again," McAlister
said. Defendants often accumulate new charges while awaiting trial on
prior arrests, McAlister said.

"They bond out of jail, and while they are waiting to go to trial
they go right back doing the same stuff and then pick up a new
charge," he said.

Smith said defense attorneys to whom he has spoken to about the drug
court have been supportive of the concept.

"They know it is in the best interest of their clients," Smith said.

Smith has spent 25 years in the legal system as a prosecutor and a
judge and has seen firsthand what drugs have done to people.

"All anti-drug efforts have been aimed at cutting the supply. Basic
economic law tells us the way to stop the drug trade is to do
something about the demand," he said.

Smith said he hopes to start the court in January or at the latest,
early February. He said as many as 30 people might be involved in the
program at any given time.

"This has been very successful in other places," he said. "Hopefully
we can save the public expense of these people continuing to violate
the law."