Sept. 27 Daily News editorial

For a program so widely respected, Cowlitz County’s Drug Court is on surprisingly shaky financial footing. The program is counting down the days until its funding runs out – again.

Word on a hoped-for three-year, $749,000 federal grant didn’t come Sept. 15, as was expected. The county won’t learn whether the federal money will be forthcoming until the end of the month, according to Daily News reporter Barbara LaBoe.

September 30 was the day the program’s budget would have run dry, had not some $8,000 in savings and increased revenue been found. That’s enough to keep Drug Court operating through October, should the federal grant application be rejected. After that, it would be anybody’s guess.

Those involved in the county’s Drug Court are accustomed to such uncertainty. Last spring, as county commissioners scrambled to close a large budget shortfall, there was talk of shutting down the program in order to identify a savings of about $77,000. Much their credit, commissioners found a way to keep the court operating through the summer.

The county’s Drug Court has never been able to look far ahead with any confidence that adequate funding would be available. The program had to go begging for operating funds every year or two. That shouldn’t be happening – not to a program that has so effectively demonstrated its value as both a crime-fighting tool and means of restoring shattered lives.

Studies in this state have found that drug courts, such as Cowlitz County’s, reduce recidivism rates by up to 16 percent. That translates into a considerable savings for taxpayers — an estimated $2.45 saved for every dollar invested, according to a 1999 study by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. The more important return, of course, is in the lives turned around and what that can mean to communities’ quality of life.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning told LaBoe that he’s optimistic about the federal grant. Warning said the county’s Drug Court fits all the criteria and has been judged “right at the top both in the state and nation in terms of how well we do and how inexpensively we do it.” If that optimistic outlook prove wrong, Warning says he remains hopeful that the commissioners again will find a way to keep the county’s Drug Court operating.

We would hope so, as well. But stop-gap funding is not is not the best way to proceed. It has taken a toll on this program. The county’s Drug Court usually has about 80 people in the program. But Drug Court coordinator Deborah Garvin told LaBoe there are only about 67 people in the program now because they stopped accepting people when it looked like the program might shut down. Also, Garvin worries that some of that $8,000 found to keep the program operating through the summer was the result of not making needing purchases because of funding uncertainties.

The county’s Drug Court is saving tax dollars and lives. It deserves more dependable support.