Va. Drug Courts Face Elimination March 21, 2002
News Summary
The Virginia General Assembly has failed to provide money for the state's drug courts, leaving judges scrambling to save the programs, the Roanoke Times reported March 17.For the fiscal year that begins in July, drug courts throughout Virginia were expecting to receive $2.7 million in state money. But in an effort to address the state's extensive financial problems, the General Assembly cut the program's funding.
Virginia House of Representatives Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said that few lawmakers understand the true value of the state's drug courts.
Virginia's drug-court program has been a crime-fighting and financial success. According to a Virginia Tech study, 68 percent of 261 participants have graduated recently, an improvement over the 1999 rate of 60 percent. Only 7 percent of graduates received new convictions.
In addition, the drug-court program cost an estimated $4,390 per participant in 2000, a savings over the $22,500 cost per inmate sentenced to prison.
Reinstating the funds for the drug court program now depends on Gov. Mark Warner. Ellen Qualls, Warner's press secretary, said the governor is studying the issue. "He has the power, but he's got to find the money somewhere," Griffith said.
In the meantime, some judges are conducting their own fundraisers to save the program. Circuit Judge Diane Strickland, who in 1995 was instrumental in making the 23rd Judicial Circuit the first in the state to include drug court, stressed her commitment to keep the successful program going.
She recently began seeking private contributions to fund the program. "My first priority is to not turn all these people out of the program," Strickland said. "There's a real legal issue to address here, that has never been addressed before: What do you do when the commonwealth and the defense have entered into an agreement, and it can't be carried forth? This is new territory to be charted, and I'm trying to prevent charting that territory."
In addition, drug-court graduates are pitching in by coordinating a pro-drug-court postcard campaign. The postcards and letters are being sent to Warner to encourage him to continue the program.
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