Walker County gets state funding for drug court

LAFAYETTE, Ga. — State officials gave Walker County $148,000 to host drug court this year.

County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield signed a grant agreement with the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council on Thursday night. The county will operate an accountability court for criminal defendants throughout the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, which also includes Catoosa, Chattooga and Dade counties. The grant takes effect July 1.

A drug court is an alternative to incarceration. Prosecutors will reach out to addicts who have been arrested — sometimes for possession charges, other times for offenses that resulted from a drug habit, such as a burglary. The prosecutors will make the defendants an offer: face your criminal charges and potential jail sentence, or go through the drug court program.

The offer does not apply to people with violent arrest records.

When defendants enlist in the program, they have to follow several rules. They have to go to counseling and agree to participate in drug tests at the staff’s request. They also have to hold jobs. And several times a month, they have to report to court to meet with a judge. The drug court staff will update the judge on how a particular defendant has performed since his last meeting, and the judge will decide what to do.

Sometimes, the judge will praise a defendant, telling him or her to keep up the good work. Other times, the judge will warn them that they are on thin ice — or even sentence them to a week in jail for violating the rules.

Accountability courts have become ubiquitous in Georgia under Gov. Nathan Deal, whose own son has been a drug court judge since before Deal took office in 2011. Under his leadership, the state has boosted funding for accountability courts by 752 percent — from $2.7 million in 2012 to $23 million in 2016.

Despite the push, Northwest Georgia has been a hold-out because former Chief Judge Jon “Bo” Wood did not want to implement the program. As of last year, the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit was one of two circuits in the state without any accountability courts.

Some other local officials had lobbied for the program, though they did not think they could receive state grants without Wood’s approval. Advocates of the program say drug court reduces recidivism, keeps non-violent offenders out of jails and gives them an opportunity to turn their lives around.

“Whatever job they had, they lost it,” Catoosa County Sheriff Gary Sisk said last year. “If they’re renting somewhere, they’re evicted. How much more can you beat somebody down?”

In September, Wood retired, opening the door to add the program. When local attorneys applied to replace Wood on the bench, almost all of them wrote on their applications to Deal that they wanted to bring a drug court to the circuit.

According to the grant agreement Whitfield signed Thursday, Walker County will handle the program’s finances. The county will then send expense reports to the CJCC four times a year, and the state agency will reimburse the local government.

Most of the funding is for employees. The drug court program will have about $69,000 to pay a program coordinator. It also has about $39,500 for contracted services such as a counselor and two police officers. In addition, the county will provide two offices to drug court employees in a LaFayette courthouse annex.

Judge Don Thompson, who replaced Wood on the bench, will be the designated drug court judge, whenever it officially opens. In February, he told the Times Free Press he hoped the program will start this fall.