Arkansas drug courts awarded $1 million to support participants' need

Arkansas’ 45 drug courts received $1 million in opioid settlement funding to support program participants’ various needs as part of ongoing efforts to address the nation’s opioid epidemic.

By: Antoinette Grajeda
Arkansas Advocate

Arkansas’ 45 drug courts received $1 million in opioid settlement funding to support program participants’ various needs as part of ongoing efforts to address the nation’s opioid epidemic.

The funding comes from a national $26 billion settlement with three opioid distributors and one manufacturer through which Arkansas will receive $216 million via annual payments over 18 years. The Administrative Office of the Courts awarded varying amounts to each of the state’s drug courts between February and May.

“The million dollars is given to the judges to help individuals that just need a little bit of a break,” AOC Director Marty Sullivan said. “It could pay for their steel-toed boots so they can go to work. It also helps individuals with treatment.”

Arkansas’ Adult Drug Court program is a voluntary, 14- to 18-month intervention program for people involved in the criminal justice system due to substance use disorder and who have an increased risk of reoffending, according to the state judiciary’s website. The program, which began in 1994 in Pulaski County under former Judge Jack Lessenberry, involves frequent court appearances, random drug testing and counseling.

Judges were given a lot of discretion over the $1 million, which must be used to provide restorative services for drug court participants, said Circuit Judge Cristi Beaumont, who oversees drug courts in Washington and Madison counties. This includes the purchase of things like cell phones so participants can call in for drug tests, bikes for transportation or dentures for teeth damaged by methamphetamine, she said.

“That’s a huge issue and just helping them with their self-esteem and making it so that they can actually eat, it’s just tremendous to them,” Beaumont said.

After a tornado over Memorial Day weekend, the courts Beaumont oversees purchased work boots for one man who “was hit pretty hard” by the storm.

The additional funding from the Administrative Office of the Courts “was a nice surprise,” Beaumont said, because the courts “survive on grants.”

“The state provides the majority of our staff, but most of the paying for people to go to treatment, paying for extra staff that is not covered by the state, we live on grants,” she said.

An estimated 2,400 Arkansans are participating in drug courts at any one point in time, AOC staff attorney Nathan McCarroll said.

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