A plan to establish drug courts in all 22 circuit courts in Mississippi has run aground because of funding concerns, the Hattiesburg American reported Jan. 30.

The goal of the expansion of the state's existing drug-court program was to save money by reducing incarceration and providing treatment to addicted offenders, but lawmakers haven't come up with the money to support taking the program to scale. Mississippi established a statewide drug court in 2003, but it was not funded until 2004, when fines for certain crimes were directed to a special fund that has generated about $4 million a year.

The state has enough money to fund the 24 existing drug courts, but not enough to pay for an expansion, officials said. Currently, 14 circuit courts have drug courts in various stages of implementation. "We certainly don't want to create a situation where we would be moving backwards," said Senate Judiciary A Committee Chairman Sen. Joey Fillingane. "But we hope the ultimate goal will be to expand the program."