LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 4, No. 5 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
[ December 20, 2018 ]
10 Former slave cemetery’s future uncertain
Time to give
Patrick Szabo/Loudoun Now
A volunteer with The Salvation Army sorts toys during the charity’s recent Angel Tree Distribution event. Thanks to volunteers and donors generous with their time and resources, local organizations like The Salvation Army and Toys for Tots, will deliver gifts to thousands of Loudoun County children this holiday season. (See story on page 30).
Drug Court: Treatment Over Jail Time BY RENSS GREENE The Board of Supervisors’ finance committee last week signed off on plans to start the wheels turning as soon as January on reestablishing a drug court program in Loudoun. The program is designed to give some drug offenders a chance to avoid jail time by going instead to an intensive outpatient treatment program. Offenders would be under intensive supervision and mandatory treatment, and if they fell off the wagon, they could wind up back in jail.
The committee recommended spending $372,000 to start the drug court with room in the program for up to 25 participants. That is supplemented by a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to help cover the program’s startup costs and first four years of operation. It will also mean hiring five new positions spread across the Department of Community Corrections, the Sheriff ’s Office, and the Department of Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Developmental Services, along with paying some overtime in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court.
Those people will work circuit court judges, who have also been supportive of the new program—and instrumental in setting it up. Circuit Court Judges Douglas L. Fleming Jr. and Stephen Sincavage were part of the Drug Court Advisory Committee county supervisors established in February to look into launching the program. They also told supervisors their bench can support up to 25 people in the program. Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman said the drug court can start as soon as the county can hire the people it needs and find space on the judges’ dockets,
which are already booked up to March. But he and Director of Community Corrections Jim Freeman said they are still planning to launch early in 2019, possibly even before a fourth Loudoun Circuit Court judge takes a seat on the bench. The county ran a drug court from 2004 to 2012, but the program was dismantled after supervisors decided they weren’t getting their money’s worth, even as those voting to close the program supported it in concept. DRUG COURT >> 42
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