Drug Court in Jeopardy

[leQ]

from mason city iowa, the effects of that 'booming' economy are felt real well.

This May a record number of people will graduate from Drug Court at Cerro Gordo County Courthouse - and it could be the last graduation ceremony if Drug Court does not see state funding from the Iowa Legislature this year.

The program runs on a federal grant that expires this June, and can't be renewed.

If the Legislature doesn't step in, the program could disappear.

Wander says, "If it wouldn't have been for the drug court, I wouldn't be here today. I would be either in prison or dead."

http://kimt.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=KIMT%2FMGArticle%2FIMT_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031781506330&path=!news!localnews

[depakid]

1. Hopefully, someone in Iowa will do a study

showing how much money the state could save by funding the program on its own- without federal money. It's not all that hard to put together the cost shiting figures explain the various externalities & societal repercussions (such as losses in productivity).

Some of my classmates in health economics were involved in putting together some similar analysis our legislature was considering cutting all of the mental health funding from the Oregon Health Plan.

Unfortunately, since Republicans don't do economics- they wouldn't listen... and the decision to cut the funding has cost the state many tens of millions of dollars over the the past couple of years- in addition to the the human costs and all of the suffering involved....