Thirty-two of Pennsylvania's 67 counties have drug courts.

Neighboring counties of Northampton and Schuylkill have either taken the plunge or are beginning to investigate introducing a drug court in the court system.NorthamptonNorthampton's drug court is still relatively new, starting last April.But officials are reporting that so far, it is showing a positive outlook.Tiffany Rossanese, administrator of Northampton County's Drug and Alcohol program, spoke about the drug court to the Northampton County Council Human Services Committee in April.Currently, 16 people are active members of the drug court, a four-phase system, with nearly a half-dozen pending applicants."The successes we're seeing speaks volumes about how great this program is," Rossanese said. Staff for the system is there every Thursday and provides services and support to those nonviolent addicts who are in the program. Participants must be on probation or parole to be eligible.Northampton County Judge Craig Dally oversees the drug court, which provides intensive supervision, treatment and meetings as an alternative to incarceration.Rossanese told the committee that statistics will eventually show that drug court is improving the situation in the county court system.SchuylkillLast month, the commissioners in Schuylkill County approved a request to apply for a $350,000 federal grant to create a drug court. Schuylkill has been plagued by a $1,800 a day cost of housing overflow inmates at other jails and a continuing trend of drug addicts being arrested.If successful, the county would contribute $116,000 to get a drug court up-and-running, but hope that the initial nearly half-million dollar investment will save the county money in the long run."Seventy percent of our crime is drug-related," Judge James P. Goodman told the commissioners before their approval.The crime rate in the county stood at 2,600 last year, an increase of 800 cases annually over a five-year period."I calculated roughly 46 percent of the criminal complaints that were filed in 2015 involved driving under the influence, driving under the influence of drugs, or were drug-related," said District Attorney Christine A. Holman. "Out of the first 500 cases in 2015, 158 were strictly drug related. The top drug is heroin, followed by methamphetamine."The grant would pay for a full-time probation officer, and a part-time assistant district attorney, public defender or drug and alcohol counselor for the program.Schuylkill is anticipating that if it is successful in securing the grants, to get the drug court up and running by the end of the year.