DRUG COURT HAS POTENTIAL FOR YOUNG OFFENDERS

While judges of the 32nd Judicial Circuit remain deadlocked over whether a drug court should be established, the circuit immediately to the south has operated one with impressive success.

Judge David Dolan in Scott County, which with Mississippi County makes up the 33rd Judicial Circuit, has operated a drug court for young offenders since 1996. Of the approximately 10 young people a year who go through the court, only one has been arrested a second time, but not on a drug charge.

While 10 cases a year is not a large number, the fact that not a single one of the 50 or so people who have gone through Dolan's court since it started has been arrested again on a drug charge is an indication that drug courts can work. And it shows they can work in rural areas, contrary to some arguments that they won't.

Judges in the 32nd circuit, which is made up of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry counties, are evenly split over whether to introduce a drug court in the circuit. The three judges in Cape Girardeau County -- Circuit judges William L. Syler and John Grimm and Associate Circuit Judge Peter Statler -- favor a drug court. Associate circuit judges Gary Kamp, Scott Thompsen and Michael Bullerdieck don't. They cite a lack of planning and consensus among local judges and lawyers on how a drug court would be run.

Nevertheless, the money designated to pay salaries for a drug court commissioner and administrator has been approved by they state. Despite the disagreement among the six judges, they have agreed to compromise and give the court a chance. Statler would handle the cases, but he says he doesn't know when he might start handling cases.

Drug courts, which are increasing in popularity as a way of handling minor drug offenses involving young people, offer intense local treatment and frequent scrutiny by judges.

Syler says the local, intensive nature of a drug court's operations makes it more attractive than either sending offenders to a treatment center out the area or locking them up, which the circuit courts do. Multiple contacts with a judge each week, which is not afforded in the present court system, is also a benefit of drug courts, the presiding judge said.

Drug courts are a means of offering help to young people who are caught with drugs before their drug problems worsen. They aren't for the serious and repeat offenders; those cases are handled in state circuit or federal courts.

The compromise by the judges is a step in the right direction that will provide an opportunity to test a drug court in the 32nd Judicial Circuit. If it works in Scott and Mississippi counties, there is no reason it won't work in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry County, where the caseload would be far heavier and many more young people given an opportunity to be helped.