LETTERS: DRUG COURT HAS COMPLEX ISSUES

To the editor:

While I do not normally respond to materials printed in your paper, I feel compelled to do so in response to Tony Hall's series on drug courts and your June 5 editorial sue to the false light that your paper has attempted to place both myself and several other judges in.

First of all, the judges of Cape Girardeau County unanimously approved the formation of a drug court in June 1999. Your article and editorial misleads the public on this issue, as a reading of both would suggest that the formation was deadlocked and there is no drug court approved. Judge Peter Statler was selected as drug court judge and has been diligently working to bring the court up in running order since the vote. This is something that does not happen overnight. The controversy and differences between the judiciary revolve around the wasting of tens of thousands of dollars for a drug court commissioner who is not needed, along with a number of other complex issues for which I do not have space to comment on in this letter. In addition, to date only one of the 32nd Judicial Circuit prosecutors has agreed, and then only on a limited basis, to use the drug court. To my knowledge, the three county commissions have not agreed to provide the funding required to operate a circuitwide court.

Secondly, your article and editorial discussed the Scott-Mississippi county drug court and have misrepresented the same. I have checked with the Scott County prosecutor's office on June 5 and have confirmed that there is no drug court in Scott County for adults, only a juvenile drug court. The Scott County prosecutor's office does not participate in the drug court. Your writer has been unable to distinguish between the two courts, and there are some significant differences between the same.

Thirdly, as I pointed out to Mr. Hall, who chose not to include this in his article, the Greene County (Springfield, Mo.) prosecutor has recently terminated his office's participation in drug court for a number of problems that the court has caused. Greene County is a county far larger than the 32nd Judicial Circuit.

There is a body of research coming to light that at least initially would suggest that the success rate in drug court is not significantly different from the rate in a system not using drug court. Furthermore, a recent ruling of the Missouri Supreme Court declaring portions of the drug-court legislation unconstitutional as it relates to drug-court commissioners has raised a number of new issues.

The articles run by your paper have tried to oversimplify a somewhat complex issue. It focused on what your author perceived as the good points without objectively examining all of the issues concerned.

GARY A. KAMP

Associate Circuit Judge

Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court

Jackson