VIENNA — Associate Judge Kerry Rowden, Prosecuting Attorney Tony Skouby and Chief Deputy Scott John met with the Maries County Commission on July 6 to discuss the possibility of a drug court in Maries County.

Drug courts offer an alternative to jail for people charged with crimes related to drug abuse. The courts closely track the activity of defendants and hold them accountable to qualifications such as meeting curfews, attending counseling meetings and passing drug screenings. After a program that usually lasts at least a year, someone in good standing with the drug court will graduate and have their charges dropped.

Rowden said he was not in favor of a drug court. He said he thinks the way he handles it now is effective, and starting a drug court would come at a significant cost to the county. A drug court would need a few new employees to help with its operations.

When someone gets drug possession charges in Rowden’s court, he orders a drug test. If the test returns positive, the inmate stays in holding until they find a treatment program. After the person selects a treatment program, Rowden issues a furlough order that allows the inmate to leave the jail to enter treatment. If the treatment is a success, he releases the person and continues drug tests until the case ends.

“I don’t think drug court does near as much,” he said.

Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel asked what cost the county paid for Rowden’s method.

Rowden said the only cost to the county was the cost of keeping people in jail.

“We’re the only county that does that, and he does a very good job of it,” Skouby said. “No other judge does what he does or goes as far as he goes to try to get them to wake up and smell the roses.”

He agreed that Maries County could not afford a drug court.

“Let’s just forget about the drug court for now,” Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre said.

Drewel said he would like to hear what John, who had not yet arrived, had to say about the drug court but added that it did “not appear to be feasible.”

Rowden said in the past, the prosecutor’s office had tried to set up a system where Maries County could send people to other counties’ drug courts, but it never materialized. He said if someone in his court wanted to go to a drug court program, they could change the venue to a county that has a drug court.

“The reason the drug program is successful is it’s an immediate punishment,” Rowden said. “That’s what we’re doing here. Once you get caught, you go to jail.”

He described it as “basically a drug court without all the bureaucracy involved.”

“I’m not telling you it’s 100 percent effective,” Rowden said. “Probably, it’s about 20 percent effective.”

“Obviously a drug court, if we had the funding, would be a high-minded, lofty goal that might get a little better than the 20 percent he’s talking about,” Skouby said. “But like I said, it’s going to cost you $75,000 to $100,000 a year to do it.”

When John arrived, he said he had already started work on organizing a drug court in Maries County. He said that running a drug court is expensive, but a federal grant to fund drug courts could get one started. Some of the organizations in the area working against the opioid epidemic have documented that they consider establishing a drug court in Maries County to be a priority because it is the only county of the four in the 25th Judicial Circuit without one.

Before Maries County can apply for the grant, it would need memorandums of understanding with entities such as doctors’ offices and the Division of Probation and Parole. With those documents, the county could determine how much money it would need to operate a drug court through the grant. John said he had tried putting together the grant application on his own over the past year, but it was too much for him to complete alone. Now he is working with the Meramec Regional Planning Commission to work on the grant application for next year.

“We stand a pretty good chance of getting it,” he said.

Fagre asked about the conditions of the grant and if it would need a fund match or run out after a year.

John said the grant was for 100 percent funding and if the county got it and did it right, the grant should be available again after its two or three years of funding ended.

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman told John what Rowden and Skouby had said about how their system of handling drug cases was working for the county.

John said when the county organizes its grant application, he wants to do things differently than some other drug courts.

“Some of the drug courts aren’t very successful,” he said. “They have a high washout rate because they set unrealistic goals for these people.”

John said requirements such as attending support group meetings multiple times per week would make success in the program difficult for people without cars. No-exception curfews could limit job options or even force people working late hours to quit their jobs to avoid jail.

“The purpose of the program is to rehabilitate people,” John said. “We need to build a program that does that.”

One of John’s ideas for a drug court would be to focus on family counseling.

“Family members don’t know what to do,” he said. “They don’t know how to treat the addict. They don’t understand why they act the way they’re acting. They don’t understand why they live the way they live. That causes a lot of dysfunction in the family, and the addict loses the support of the family because the family gets frustrated and just doesn’t want to deal with it.”

“Do we really want this drug court though?” Fagre asked.

“I would say there’s a reason that so many counties and circuits have it,” John said. “It does have its place if used properly.”

SHeriff’s Posse

Later in the meeting, the commissioners decided to call Jennifer Gerling, their contact with the county’s insurance company Wallstreet Group. They wanted to ask about the county’s liability relating to the activities of the Maries County Sheriff’s Office Posse. Community members have continued to ask them questions about the posse, and they wanted to ensure they understood the county’s liability for the organization.

In previous correspondence with County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers, Gerling said that the posse members were covered if they stayed within certain guidelines, which included not detaining or arresting anyone without proper Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).

The commissioners asked about a few hypothetical scenarios, including one about if the county would be liable if a posse member broke protocol and injured someone while helping with an arrest. Gerling said if the person did not have proper arrest training, that could make the county liable. She said most of the activities the posse would engage in such as school patrols, aiding search teams and going on ride-alongs would probably not be an issue as long as the posse members did not try to arrest anyone.

Stratman asked about posse members supervising inmates as part of the jail trusty program. Gerling said it would depend on how the posse members responded if inmates tried to escape: would the posse members let the inmates go or would they try to detain them?

Rodgers asked what would happen if one of the posse members got hurt while volunteering. Gerling said the county would need to contact its workers’ compensation provider for a situation like that to see if it covered volunteers.

John rejoined the meeting to discuss the posse.

“As long as everything goes according to plan, it’s great,” Stratman said to John. “But if something goes wonky, (we) are all (liable).”

“If they violate policy, that’s standard with anybody,” John said. “We are establishing training and they will all be trained before they do those jobs.”

John said posse members will have civilian restrictions until they complete the training programs applicable to their roles in the organization. Posse members interacting with inmates will receive the same training as jailers, who are not POST-certified because that training is only for police officers. They have separate jail training for handling inmates, which includes how to handcuff an inmate, pressure point control techniques, off-limits points of contact and training for non-lethal weapons such as pepper spray.

Gerling said if the county sent over more details, she could follow up with more information. John said he would send those details.

“I’m not real comfortable with the posse,” Stratman said when the call ended.

“There seems to be a small group in the community that’s pushing really hard to shut the posse down and trying to get everybody worked up about the danger and the risks associated with the posse,” John said. “Everybody is overlooking the goal of the posse, which is going to far outweigh any risk that we’re taking on.”

He added that the county is already reaping the benefits of the posse. One volunteer helped find the CodeRED mass notification system. John hopes to start having residents subscribe by the end of the month.

Fagre asked if John was confident that the posse training would be effective.

John asked if Fagre was comfortable with the jailers at the sheriff’s office because they have had at least the same training as posse members will have.

For a ride-along, posse members will receive training on how deputies conduct a traffic stop, but posse members will not assist in the stops. Posse members will also receive training on where to safely stand and act as another set of eyes if they want to get out of the vehicle during traffic stops.

“I’m not putting more cops on the road,” John said. “It’s not the purpose. The purpose of the ride-along is that this is supposed to be a liaison between the public and the police to bridge that gap. I’m not making them part of our team so we can put more people on our side of the line. I want them straddling the line so they can go back to the public and say ‘Here’s how the deputies do this.’”

John said one of the gaps the posse can bridge is in school safety. Vienna does not have a school resource officer, but posse members could fill in some of that role.

“It makes our schools safer, and they don’t have to have a gun to do that,” he said.

Fagre asked if the posse’s presence in schools would violate the Safe Schools Act. John said it would not.

“I believe in the next six months you’re going to see some huge benefits out of the posse,” John said.

“We just hope everything goes right,” Stratman said.

Purple Heart County

The commission received a letter from the Military Order of the Purple Heart that informed them about the Purple Heart designation they can give the county through a proclamation. The organization takes its name from the Purple Heart medal, which wounded members of the United States military or the families of service members killed in action receive. Dozens of cities and counties throughout both Missouri and the U.S. have Purple Heart designations.

“I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t do that,” Stratman said.

The organization will accept the proclamation at a future public meeting. Cost to the county only occurs if the county decides to buy a Purple Heart sign.