Pubdate: Sun,  5 May 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

LOSS OF FUNDING THREATENS CHARLESTON COUNTY'S DRUG COURT

Original Federal Monies To Run Out May 31; Officials Hope To Win Second 
Competitive Grant

The Charleston County Adult Drug Court, which has kept scores of nonviolent 
drug offenders out of prison and drug free, soon could reduce services if 
its federal funding ends this month. The first federal grant that created 
the innovative program in July 1999 will expire May 31. But a second 
two-year grant for $300,000, if approved, would improve the court and give 
it time to become less dependent on public money, court officials said. As 
the first grant expires, the court could learn if it is picked from drug 
courts around the nation for the competitive second grant, said program 
coordinator Schelley Strasberg. More than 270 drug courts nationwide have 
applied for more than $100 million in funding, but Congress has approved 
only half that amount for the next fiscal year, a Justice Department 
spokesperson said. The possible loss of funding has created optimistic 
tension among local court officials and their clients, who in many cases 
have shaken drug habits to work full time and care for families. "We are in 
the eleventh hour," said Associate Probate Court Judge Tamara Curry, who 
presides over the drug court with Probate Judge Irvin Condon. "If the 
funding does not come in May, I am not going to say the program ends in 
June." If the grant is denied, the drug court will ask Charleston County 
Council and other local groups for help to continue the court's most 
expensive service, drug treatment, she said. The court has three paid 
employees and 10 volunteers on the staffs of the solicitor and public 
defender. The S.C. Senate has put $1 million in the pending state budget to 
fund drug courts in 10 of the state's 16 judicial circuits.

But that money is not guaranteed, and it must be shared with other drug 
courts, Curry said. "We are hoping that with (federal money) we can keep 
the court going and become nonprofit," she said. "If we don't get the 
money, we will do everything creatively to keep the program going." Drug 
court participants plead guilty to charges of selling and using illegal 
narcotics.

They are given prison sentences that are set aside while they work, avoid 
drugs and follow court rules, said Assistant Solicitor Ravi Sanyal. Once 
they graduate from the program,which can take more than a year to complete, 
prosecutors request that guilty pleas are withdrawn and the charges 
dismissed, Sanyal said. With mandatory counseling, drug testing and 
appearances at weekly court sessions, the program is more intensive and 
restrictive than probation, said Rickey C. Dennis, one of two drug court 
counselors. With its funding in doubt, the court has not admitted new 
participants in the last 10 months, Strasberg said. "We are giving 
treatments, but we don't have the opportunity to reach out to the community 
to get other people to take advantage of this program," she said. "It has 
helped me turn my life around," said Nickole Kormaris, a 27-year-old Ladson 
free-lance artist who has kicked a $1,000-a-day cocaine habit after 
pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine in 1999. "Drug court teaches people 
to be responsible, and counselors are so intensive they can tell if you are 
lying, stealing and using drugs.

If you get caught, you go to prison." In Kormaris' case, that prison 
sentence would have been 30 years. Drug court graduate Arnold Venning of 
Charleston said the program helped him get a 15-year 1999 cocaine 
trafficking sentence dismissed and steered him into counseling for the 
alcohol abuse that fueled his addiction. "I never craved cocaine until I drank.

I've learned to be responsible to find out my triggers.

As long as I don't pick up that first drink, I don't have to find the 
drugs," said the 51-year-old Venning, who works as a waiter and bartender 
and is now enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous. Ending or reducing the 
program, Venning said, "would be a loss for people who want more than just 
their charges dropped but want help with their drug problem." While there 
is no guarantee the Justice Department will approve the grant, the court's 
success at changing lives, its designation as a mentor court for drug 
courts nationally and Condon's reputation nationwide make it a good 
candidate for renewed funding, Strasberg said. Condon is recognized as a 
leading teacher of drug court judges around the country, Strasberg said. 
While presiding over drug court, Condon and Curry praise participants 
who've done well, but with a sympathetic tone they scold others and 
sometimes order them to brief stints in jail if they break the rules.

Those with too many infractions are tossed out to serve their full prison 
sentences. "You never can tell who will do well and the one who will turn 
their life around," Condon said. Half of the people enrolled in drug court 
have graduated or are still in the program, Strasberg said. Twenty-eight of 
the local court's 132 enrollees have graduated, and there are currently 48 
in the program.

Eleven of them are expected to graduate Thursday. The court's current 
retention rate of 57 percent is lower than the national average, but the 
rate last summer was above the national average of 67 percent, she added.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens