Pubdate: Tue, 18 Jun 2002
Source: Post and Courier, The (SC)
Copyright: 2002 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:   http://www.charleston.net/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: Herb Frazier

DRUG COURT COULD FACE SHUTDOWN

With Federal Grant Exhausted, Officials Seek Alternative Sources For Funds

If private donors and elected officials do not rescue it, the Charleston 
County Adult Drug Court will end this fall, its presiding judge said Monday.

Since 1999, the drug court has stretched a two-year federal grant to run a 
highly structured program that recently lost its federal funding.

With its federal money nearly gone, Probate Judge Irvin Condon is expected 
to meet June 27 with Charleston County Council's Finance Committee in hopes 
of saving a program that has diverted some drug cases from clogged court 
schedules and helped non-violent drug users improve their lives.

Condon is not expected to ask for money because council rejected a funding 
request last year.  Instead, Condon will present "options" to council, he 
said. The judge declined to give details.

If the council doesn't provide a solution, the court could seek non-profit 
status, which would allow it to accept private donations.

If both approaches fail, Condon said, "This court will end until there 
comes a time that funding is available."

County Council Chairman Tim Scott said council "is open to options that I 
hope Judge Condon will come up with. He is working on a few for us to 
consider."

Scott said he does not know what those options are. Scott declined to say 
directly if council would fund the court, which helps people with drug and 
alcohol addiction shake their habits to work full time and care for families.

"I think the question is, 'What will it cost if there is no drug court?' " 
Scott asked. "That is the question that has to be answered." Any funding 
option Condon might propose ultimately needs council's approval, Scott added.

Charleston County's drug court, one of 10 adult drug courts in South 
Carolina, began in July 1999 with a grant from the U.S. Justice Department. 
Earlier this year, the local court applied for a second two-year grant for 
$300,000, but that request was rejected last month.  Instead of awarding 
the Charleston court a second grant, the Justice Department gave money to 
start juvenile drug courts in Lancaster and Rock Hill.

Drug court participants plead guilty to charges of selling and using 
illegal narcotics.  They are given prison sentences that are set aside if 
they work, avoid drugs and follow court rules.  Once they graduate from the 
program, which can take more than a year to complete, prosecutors request 
that guilty pleas be withdrawn and the charges dismissed.

With mandatory counseling, drug testing and appearances at weekly court 
sessions, the program is more intensive and restrictive than probation, 
counselors and participants have said.

Schelley Carlton, the court's coordinator, said the program has enough 
money to continue until September. The program should graduate 26 people by 
then, she said.

Because funding has been in doubt, Solicitor Ralph Hoisington's office has 
not referred new participants to the program, Carlton said. "As soon as we 
become funded on a regular basis, the solicitor can have people plead into 
the program," she said.

Drug court participants have said the program helped them. But drug courts 
around South Carolina have not slowed the sale and use of illegal drugs, 
officials said. Drug arrests have increased in the past decade.  From 1990 
to 2000, adult and juvenile drug charges in South Carolina rose from 15,599 
to 28,320, according to the State Law Enforcement Division.

John Hart, legislative liaison for the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other 
Drug Abuse Services, said drug courts "take pressure off the criminal 
justice system and provide quality treatment for people with a serious 
disease."

While police step up drug enforcement, drug courts can only reach a small 
percentage of the criminal population, Hart said. "Drug court is not a 
prevention tool; it is an intervention tool."

"Violent crime has gone down in South Carolina and the rest of the country, 
but unfortunately South Carolina is still ranked in the top five states per 
capita in violent crimes," said Burke Fitzpatrick, administrator of the 
Office of Justice Programs in the S.C. Department of Public Safety.

"It is reasonable to believe that violent crime is fueled by alcohol and 
drug abuse," he said. "When you see drug arrests rising, that can be 
indicative of greater drug activity, but it can also show increased 
enforcement efforts.

Drug courts balance that out to take some offenders out of that cycle of 
crime."
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