Pubdate: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 Source: Daily Press (VA) Copyright: 2002 The Daily Press Contact: http://www.dailypress.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/585 DRUG COURT Hampton Should Invest In What Works Hampton made a major investment in public safety last week, deciding to spend $1.8 million for pay raises for police and fire personnel. The City Council was offered, at the same meeting, an opportunity to make another investment in public safety - one that will cost far less and that has the potential both to save money and to cut crime. The Hampton Drug Court is, finally, ready to roll - as soon as the city of Hampton can free up a small amount of money. Drug court is a special court for nonviolent criminals charged with felony drug possession. It brings together strict court supervision, intensive treatment, frequent drug testing and a requirement that offenders get their lives in order by working or going to school, supporting their families and being financially responsible. Hampton won a competitive $356,000 federal grant to develop its drug court, only to find that the expected state match was a casualty of the budget crisis. Local agencies have come up with much of the match by contributing staff. The program has the support of Hampton judges, the police department and the commonwealth's attorney, as well as the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board. They know that drug court has the potential to do in Hampton what it has done in localities across the nation: cut crime, using the immense power of court sanctions and rewards to get addicts into effective treatment for the addiction that leads them to crime. The council was pitched for funds to match the federal grant for the next two years. This year the program needs only $33,000. Next year it needs $69,079. Until Hampton makes a commitment, the court can't start using the federal money. The city should find the money. Drug court works. It will benefit not only the participants - who will finally get involved in a program with the power to break their addiction - but all the citizens of Hampton. How will they benefit? Drug court saves money; it cuts the costs of law enforcement and incarceration. The annual tab for an offender in drug court is about $4,000 - compared to $20,000 or more if the offender is locked up. And any time a citizen isn't a potential victim of a drug-related crime, he or she benefits. Big time. It's not a lot of money. Yes, as City Manager George Wallace pointed out, there's the outside chance the tab could grow in the event the city has to pick up the full cost when the federal grant runs out in a few years. But only if the state doesn't come through, as it has for the other 13 drug courts in Virginia. So the City Council ought to come up with the match in the short run, so drug court can start working in Hampton. And in the long run the region's General Assembly representatives should work in Richmond to restore state funding. State or local, it's money well spent. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens