The Fourteenth Circuit Multidisciplinary Court’s Colleton Sessions and Its Veterans Track

The programme. The Solicitor's own account of the August 3, 2021 expansion: "A program with a long history of helping troubled defendants become productive citizens in Beaufort County is now available in Colleton County, thanks in part to a $740,000 grant secured by the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office. The Multidisciplinary Court program is an alternative to prison for non-violent offenders whose crimes are a result of chemical addiction or the effects of their military service, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The Solicitor's Office has operated this program in Beaufort County since 2010 and now brings it to Colleton and Jasper counties after earning a three-year grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance." Solicitor Duffie Stone: "Our Multidisciplinary Court gives these defendants the structure and treatment they need, at far less expense than incarceration." How it works. "Participants plead guilty to their offense in General Sessions Court, in front of a Circuit Court judge. However, their sentences are held in abeyance as they participate in the Multidisciplinary Court program." The requirements: substance-abuse and/or mental-health treatment, random drug testing and unscheduled home visits, restitution and community service, and progress reported at regularly scheduled court sessions; a non-compliant participant can be dropped "and the prison sentence immediately imposed." The Colleton court. "Family Court Judge Gerald C. Smoak Jr. and Colleton County Probate Judge Ashley Amundson, both Walterboro residents, preside over Colleton County's Multidisciplinary Court sessions. The first two defendants pleaded into the program in May [2021]." MDC Director Teresa Pye. The federal grant funded in-house substance-abuse counselors; the counselor hired was Rebecca Dean. The veterans track. The announcement's partner list: "Colleton County Veterans Affairs, under director Janet D. Smith, provides counseling services to participants in our Veterans Track." The track itself dates to the programme's 2010 rebuild - the Solicitor's biography notes that when his office took over the Beaufort drug court in 2010, "treatment services and a tract for military veterans were added." The circuit's court-alternatives page still points participants to contact Lee Reavis for the MDC. The county's part. The Colleton County Sheriff's Office (then Sheriff Buddy Hill) assists with security and hosts drug and alcohol testing; the Clerk of Court (Rebecca Hill) provides workspace for counselors and courtroom space for weekly hearings; Pillars4Hope (formerly the Colleton County Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, executive director Nikeyia Hammonds) provides counseling space and some services; and the county's own Veterans Affairs office counsels the Veterans Track - its staff, now under Director Kenneth V. DeLee, are the track's treatment partners.