super-detox-program

DRUG PROGRAM IN PERIL

System Earns Praise, Weighs Fundraising

On a recent Monday at the Beaufort County Courthouse, assistant solicitor Christine Grefe sat in for the judge during county Drug Court, an alternative-sentencing program for defendants addicted to drugs or alcohol.

The prosecutor listened as two counselors gave progress reports on each participant.

"Doing well ...  really knows how to present himself in interviews ...  but still has to stay in a halfway house" was the update on one man.  Another had "acclimated well" in a halfway house and recently landed a job at a Hilton Head Island restaurant.

"Be careful, I know about food and beverage," Grefe warned him good-naturedly.

The 10 or so participants were in the beginning stages of a 12- to 18-month program.  The court has survived in Beaufort County after dying out in neighboring counties of the 14th Judicial Circuit.

But a potentially gaping hole looms in the coming fiscal year budget that begins July 1, with the city of Beaufort likely to let its commitment to pay about one-fourth of the court's costs expire.

If the court does not receive that money, its officials may ask other governments to make up the shortfall because a dip in funding could mean fewer people admitted.  The court is seeking federal nonprofit status for private fundraising.

Meanwhile, the court generally has received praise from opposite ends of the criminal justice system.

With 28 current participants, the court provides intensive addiction treatment and supervision to nonviolent offenders.  During the program, participants must appear in court weekly, attend counseling

sessions and agree to have random drug tests for 12 to 18 months, depending on the person's situation.  They need to hold a steady job or seriously be looking for one.

The stakes are high.  To get into the program, offenders pay $1,500, give up their right to trial by pleading guilty to charges and waive constitutional rights to search and seizure.  If terminated from the program, they go straight to sentencing with a guilty plea already on record.

But if they succeed, they could emerge with a clean record and, more importantly, a new life, said Manning Smith, the court judge's and an ardent supporter.

"Even those who didn't quit long-term using drugs or alcohol, quit committing crimes in furtherance of their habit," Smith said.  "It instills conscience, I guess."

Since the program's inception in Beaufort County in late 2001, 66 people have been admitted, Smith said.  Fifteen were terminated, 23 graduated and 28 are enrolled.  Only one program graduate has been re-arrested, he said.

About three-fifths of the defendants are from greater Bluffton and Hilton Head, Smith estimates, while the remainder are from greater Beaufort.

"It is disproportionately south of the Broad ( River ).  I don't know why," Smith said.

A report released in April by the U.S.  Government Accountability Office found a reduced rate of recidivism -- those who return to crime -- among drug-court graduates in numerous programs around the country.  This applied across different types of crime.  There were no conclusive results about the program preventing people from returning to alcohol and drug use.

The first such programs began in the late 1980s.  As of September 2004, more than 1,200 were operating in the country with another 500 planned, the GAO report states.

South Carolina's first adult drug court started in Lexington County in 1996 and still operates.  Seven other state judicial circuits have drug courts, with others planned for Anderson County in the 10th Circuit and Horry and Georgetown counties in the 15th Circuit, according to S.C.  Court Administration.

In 1999, drug courts in Hampton, Jasper and Colleton counties were funded by a three-year federal grant intended to start the program in the 14th Judicial Circuit.  The circuit also includes Beaufort and Allendale counties.  Courts in other counties expired along with the grant in 2002 -- Solicitor Randolph Murdaugh III said this was "absolutely financial."

"Beaufort is the only one that saw it fit to pick it up when the grant ran out," Murdaugh said.

There are no plans to restart the programs in the other counties, he said, though it is a concept he strongly supports.

"I have heard very little criticism of the drug court," he said.  "Somebody's always going to bitch about something, but I've heard very little about the drug court."

Current funding for Beaufort County's program includes $70,500 from the county, $38,430 from the Town of Hilton Head Island and $30,000 from the city of Beaufort.  But two years ago, the city stated that its commitment to funding the court would expire at the end of this fiscal year, which is June 30.

The judge said he still is talking to city council members about renewing the commitment.

"I have not given up on the city," Smith said Friday.

Though county funding looks solid for the near future, county administrator Gary Kubic said this year's budget process should include a performance review to gauge success.

The court is trying to obtain nonprofit status from the federal government, according to Clerk of Court Elizabeth Smith, Manning Smith's wife.  The application is pending after nine months, she said.  Nonprofit status would allow the court to solicit private donations.

Smith said he would like to make room for 40 defendants in the program.  Costs are about $5,000 to $6,000 per person, including the $1,500 participants pay.

Effectively, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and the Solicitor's Office can determine who enters the program.  Though highly complimentary of Smith's handling of the court, Sheriff P.J.  Tanner offered qualified support for the program.

"Drug court is borderline, being a little too feel-good," Tanner said.  "I think there are those we can help.  We just need to be careful who we let in."

In some respects, drug court resembles an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting more than the typical day in court.  When Grefe promoted one man to phase two last month, the room burst into applause.  Even Smith calls it "AA with teeth."

"I have a lot of personal contact with these people," he said.  "I can't remember a day going by that one doesn't call me.

"It's the personal connection that makes the difference.  This is the most important thing I've ever done, and I am absolutely dedicated to it."