Status of the Anderson County Drug Court Formation

by Kelly Dagenhart

I first became aware of the Drug Court program in the RID Aug. 2000 National newsletter about a New York Drug Court (see the Fall 2000 article about our use of this treatment). It seemed that our local chapter should find some way to get that type of program here. RID of Oak Ridge/Anderson Co. actually started the Drug Court formation process on May 28, 2003, when I heard Knox Co., TN, Judge Baumgartner talking on the local radio show about the success of their Drug Court.

I immediately decided that we could get help in the formation process from Knox Co. At the RID Board Meeting on June 3, 2003, I had invited Ron Hanaver to help us investigate whether we wanted to try and get a Drug Court formed for Anderson County. Ron is the Drug Court Coordinator for the Knox County, TN, Drug Court and has been invaluable in our process.

We had to wait until August 2004 to file for a federal grant to get the Drug Court Training process started in 2005. We had collected a Drug Court Team by the Aug. 27, 2004 deadline and sent in our application. In Nov. 2004, we were notified that our grant had been approved, and that training would start in late Jan. 2005. After Judge Buddy Scott and Drug Court Coordinator Jaquiline Holloway attended the first of three training sessions (all drug court members would have attended the second two training sessions), I put out a press release from RID that the Drug Court Formation process had indeed started.

Unfortunately, Attorney General James Ramsey read the press release and immediately decided that he should resign from the Drug Court process. Since the Drug Court requirements are that the District Attorney have a member from his staff on the Drug Court Team, the Drug Court formation process was effectively aborted. RID tried several times to talk James Ramsey back onto the team with no luck. Hopefully by August 2005, we can get a Drug Court Team together that will stay together and complete the formation process for training in 2006.