Criminals convicted of drug-related crimes may face a new sort of punishment in DeKalb County and help the jail’s bed situation.

Circuit Judge Robbin Stuckert and Dennis Sands, DeKalb County Board chairman, announced Friday the establishment of a new task force designed to study the feasibility of instituting a drug court in DeKalb County.

“Drug courts provide a way for judges to place some non-violent drug-addicted offenders in rehabilitation rather than jail,” said Steve Slack, county board member and vice chair of the task force.

The task force is composed of 10 members of the DeKalb County government and Michael Flora, director of Ben Gordon Center. Stuckert is chairing the group.

“As our community continues to grow, we must look for alternative ways to serve and continue to meet the needs of the county,” Stuckert said in a prepared statement.

The task force members will gather information to study how they could implement a drug court, Stuckert said.

Offenders’ drug problems are assessed, and they have to submit to frequent drug tests, Slack said. Also, they have a long probationary period in which they have to stay sober and report regularly to a judge.

“It is tough; it is time-consuming but it works,” Slack said.

The idea for the drug court was proposed by the ad hoc jail committee last year, which was looking for alternative sentencing ideas, Slack said. The new system also could have a significant effect on the jail’s bed needs.

“Studies of jail population in DeKalb County show that more than half of the inmates in our jail have drug and alcohol issues,” Slack said.

Slack said he asked the public services committee of the county board last October to consider the drug court as a way of reducing the number of beds needed.

“The committee gave its approval for this effort,” Slack said, “and I’m proud that Chairman Sands has wasted no time getting the ball rolling.”

More than a dozen Illinois counties have drug courts and use them to reduce drug-related crime, Slack said. Champaign County has a drug court and is close in size and characteristics to DeKalb County.

There are 1,078 drug courts in operation in the United States, with another 418 in the planning process, according to the National Drug Court Institute Web site,www.ndci.org.