District Judge Joe McCarville addresses County Commission over drug court study.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioners approved spending nearly $40,000, most of which will be federal dollars to study the Reno County Drug Court program which has been in place for a little more than three years.
Judge Joe McCarville, who started the program, was before the Reno County Commission Tuesday talking about the study that he hopes will show them where they can be more efficient in how they handle funds for the program while, at the same time, trying to help more people.
He says they know there are things which are still issues in this community and need to be addressed. This study may help with what the judge calls gaps in the process which would include more help for those who are on drugs.
The study will also be used to compare the Drug Court to other peer programs and provide cost comparisons of the program, versus incarceration.
Homelessness is also an issue, according to the judge, and something that needs to be addressed so that they can help some of those people. He says in many cases, they have been rejected by the homeless shelters, have been kicked out of places they were renting and also burned bridges with family and friends. So there is no help in getting them housing. He says they need to have a residence for them to go through drug court. They need to be able to check on them in off hours to know if they are following drug court rules.
The program is designed to provide drug offenders the opportunity to get away from drugs and get their lives back on track, thus avoiding prison time.
The study will be done by Dr. Melissa Walker of Wichita State University using graduate students and could take as long as one year, according to Judge McCarville.
It will be funded using about $14,000 from special alcohol tax dollars and the rest from unspent federal grant money.