(KLZA)-- Pawnee County Commissioners spent a good portion of their meeting time on January 15th visiting with County Attorney Jennifer Stehlik Ladman about  a Drug Court proposed in Southeast, Nebraska. 

Stehlik Ladman says a Drug Court targets alternative  solutions instead of incarceration  for drug offenders.

It is an 18-month program with a bulk of the cost paid by the State for the Probation Officer.  The defendants would need to meet certain stipulations before being allowed to go to Drug Court.  

There has been talk of expanding a Drug Court to include Pawnee, Johnson, Richardson, Nemaha and Otoe counties.  The State must approve the prorgram.

The cost to expand the program into these counties would be $26,400.  Each county pays a flat amount plus the number of participants. The cost for the first year for Pawnee County would be just over $2,900.  The following years the cost would be $1,000 plus the costs for the local participants. 

Stehlik Ladman said three of the 11 current open drug cases in Pawnee County would be eligible to participate and she estimated Pawnee County would likely have 1 – 3 people a year referred to Drug Court.  

Following the discussion, the Pawnee County Board voted unanimously to participate in the Drug Court.