FRANKLIN — Simpson County will begin operating a drug court within the next few weeks.

The Simpson Fiscal Court agreed at Tuesday’s meeting to allow Judge-Executive Jim Henderson to begin negotiations for a site that would house the drug court temporarily.

The state requires that there be a conference room and a secure place for random drug testing for a drug court, said Janet Crocker, circuit judge for Simpson and Allen counties.

“This program is for people who probably would have received probation but were likely to have failed under normal probation standards,” she said.

The program would be for people who may have never had structure in their lives before, Crocker said.

“This program gives (participants) the structure to begin living productive adult lives,” she said.

Drug court requires participants to participate in counseling, take random drug tests three times a week and attend Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Crocker said.

The Kentucky Legislature is looking to cut 10 percent of the state’s total inmate population this year by diverting convicts into alternate programs, indicating that the way things are being done now is not working, she said

A drug court has been operating in Allen County for several months, she added.

“We wanted to start it there first, not as a pilot program, but because Allen County is a smaller county,” Crocker said.

Any rental space for drug court would be temporary. The fiscal court needs to look at eventually putting the drug court on Court Street, said Magistrate Kelly Banton. Court Street is centrally located and all legal buildings should be in that area, Banton said.

But it would cost the county money to renovate the current county courthouse, Henderson said.

The Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts would reimburse the fiscal court for any rental payments on a temporary building, Henderson said.

There also is not available office space for drug court at the Simpson County Justice Center, Crocker said.

There are also issues with parking at the justice center that are a continuing problem, Crocker said.

When all three courts are operating on the same day, the available parking spaces quickly fill up, she said.