The program to treat rather than imprison certain drug offenders will be funded through December 2012 with a federal stimulus grant of $428,292 administered by Troup County court administrator Sheryl Hicks.
Superior Court Judge Jack Kirby of LaGrange said drug courts have a good track record.
“First and foremost is the ability to keep families together, to keep people productive and paying taxes, and that leads to wonderful collateral benefits – fewer criminal cases, less recidivism among drug users and fewer resources of the court in dealing with those problems,” he said.
“We’re paying for them to sit in jail …. and at the same time we’re now supporting their family and children with public assistance.”
Drug addicts who qualify will be sentenced to a two-year rehabilitation program, which would include drug testing, weekly court appearances and numerous meetings with a treatment team and mental health professionals.
The grant will be used mostly for personnel, but also for an in-house lab that can provide cheaper and faster drug testing. Counties could use the lab to screen job applicants as well.
First offenders can opt for the drug court program and no longer have a criminal record, but “if they don’t qualify for pre-adjudication, I still think we need to try to help them,” Kirby said. A panel would decide who qualifies for drug treatment.
Carroll County has had a drug court for 11 years, but will get its share of the grant funds.
District Attorney Pete Skandalakis said drug court also can be used for other crimes such as theft or forgery as long as it can be tied to drug addiction.
He drug cases “pose a substantial strain on the criminal justice system, on the health system and on the economy, and if we can get people back to being productive members of society who don’t have a drug addiction and get them back to their families, I’m all in favor or that.”
He said defendants who can afford it will have to share in the costs of treatment and drug testing.
After the grant expires at the end of 2012, cities and counties will have to decide whether to continue funding, although “I think the state should look into assisting counties in these types of drug courts,” Skandalakis said.
Drug sellers won’t be included in the program.
“We don’t let the wolf in the hen house,” said Troup County State Court Judge Jeannette Little, who will preside over drug court here.
Little has operated a DUI/drug court, mostly for repeat DUI offenders, for the past six years and that program will continue, she said. Her office recently wwas approved for another one-year grant of about $35,000 through the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
“We haven’t gotten down to the nuts and bolts,” Little said of the new felony drug court. “…. We’ve got some real structural issues that need to be resolved before we actually open the doors and start.”
A team from this circuit is headed to Kansas City, Mo., this week for training by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
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