NEW COUNTY OFFICIAL SAYS PRISON ISN'T ONLY WAY TO FIGHT DRUGS

Commissioner

New Commissioner Sets Goals For Drug Court

Riehl At A Glance

Name - Patricia Riehl

Job - Recently hired as Jefferson County drug court commissioner

Salary - $96,000

Background - 21 years practicing law; municipal judge of De Soto since
1987; municipal judge for Crystal City since 1995

Education - University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law, 1982

On the traditional approach to drug abuse - "We've been effective in
spending the dollars to put people in the penitentiary... but not really
effective in addressing the problem up front."

Family status - Married, one daughter, 17

Learned the real-world practice of law from - Jefferson County lawyer
Brunson Hollingsworth

Favorite book: "Elmer Gantry" by Sinclair Lewis

Drug Court's New Leader Sets Goals

Some family traditions are hard to break.

That's where Patricia Riehl hopes to step in.

Riehl, recently hired as Jefferson County's new drug court commissioner,
has seen enough drug users in her 21 years of practicing law to know the
pattern: Parents who abuse drugs tend to rear children who abuse drugs.

"You can almost see it as a generational problem," Riehl says. "It's a
family tradition almost. We haven't been very effective at addressing that.
We've been effective in spending the dollars to put people in the
penitentiary on the other end but not really effective in addressing the
problem up front."

Part of the challenge, she says, is helping drug users understand that
there is a drug-free world out there in which they can take part. Riehl,
45, of the De Soto area, has served as a municipal judge in De Soto for 16
years and as a municipal judge in Crystal City since 1995. She will assume
the duties of the county's drug court commissioner in October.

Even at the municipal court level, Riehl says: "We see a number of drug
violations, or violations that you can divine from the behavior is probably
drug behavior. We're not breaking the cycle."

That's the idea of Jefferson County's drug court, an alternative sentencing
program intended to send first-time, nonviolent drug offenders to
rehabilitation, school and job programs rather than to prison.

The programs use a combination of intense supervision, treatment, praise
and counseling to help offenders turn their lives around and have become
increasingly common in Missouri and elsewhere. Those who successfully
complete the programs walk away drug-free without a record. Those who
stumble face criminal prosecution.

Judge Timothy Patterson, who has presided over Jefferson County's drug
court since the county started the alternative sentencing program in
January 2002, says officials hope a full-time commissioner will allow them
to expand the effort to include juvenile and family drug courts to address
young offenders and situations in which parents have lost custody of their
children because of drug or alcohol problems.

Prosecutor Bob Wilkins has recommended a slightly altered version of the
program that could be used to handle felony DWI offenders.

The concept of an alternative drug court was introduced in Missouri with a
program in Kansas City in 1993. There are 58 adult, juvenile and family
drug courts operating in the state, and 33 more are being planned.

Riehl was selected from among 12 applicants to fill the drug court
commissioner's post in Jefferson County. She will earn $96,000 annually in
the new position, the same as an associate circuit judge.

Riehl, a 1982 graduate of the University of Missouri at Kansas City School
of Law, has been practicing law for 21 years. She has served as a municipal
judge in De Soto since 1987 and in Crystal City since 1995. She also has
served as a hearing officer for the two cities' police personnel boards and
as a hearing officer for the Missouri Supreme Court on issues of
disciplining of lawyers.

"We had a number of highly qualified candidates to select from," Patterson
said. "She was our ultimate choice."