ELLSWORTH – Hancock County, on behalf of a group of residents and officials seeking to implement an alternative sentencing program in the county’s court system, has received a $100,000 federal grant.

The grant comes through Maine Department of Public Safety from the federal Byrne Memorial Program, which is aimed at helping state and local agencies prevent crime and violence.

The program in Hancock County has been pursued by residents and officials who hope to implement a special sentencing procedure similar to the state-funded drug court in other counties. The aim of the program is to create an intensive monitoring system for qualified drug-addicted offenders that will better help them overcome their dependencies, rather than just putting them in jail without sufficient treatment.

According to Richard Dimond, a retired physician from Southwest Harbor who has spearheaded the effort to implement the program, the county was awarded the grant last week. Dimond said Wednesday that the grant would enable the county to implement the sentencing program “as soon as possible.”

With the grant and a separate $50,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, $158,000 has been raised so far for the program – enough to fund positions for a case manager and a substance abuse counselor and for other costs, Dimond said.

The sentencing program is not the only one started by Hancock County to help combat the use of drugs in the region. In January, the county created a $200,000 law enforcement task force, which consists of three police officers who pursue drug investigations full time. County officials so far are proposing to fund the task force again in 2005, though the county budget will not be approved until December.

County officials also in the past year have started a drug treatment program for Hancock County Jail inmates.