1.   As U.S. attorney general, Ms. Reno is now championing the creation of drug courts around the country.

2.   A drug court casts a wider net than other programs.

3.   A supporter of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, Bailey said drug courts and alternative sentences are not appropriate for major drug dealers.

4.   But studies indicate that drug courts actually help prevent crime by cutting repeat offenses.

5.   Clinton has made federal money available as well for local drug courts, which divert nonviolent petty offenders into treatment as an alternative to prison.

6.   Drug court differs from criminal court.

7.   Drug courts require them to become rather like moral tutors, involved daily in the life of defendants.

8.   Drug courts are a more controversial approach.

9.   Drug courts have sprouted throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, though the basic laws on mandatory sentences for a host of drug crimes have not changed.

10.   Drug courts work, judges say, because they turn the judges into motivators with the power to praise, cajole and coerce defendants.