Sentencing Panel Mulls Alternatives to Prison

October 21, 2008

Published October 12, 2008 The Washington Post By Darryl Fears http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/11/AR2008101102051.html

The U.S. Sentencing Commission is considering endorsing options including treatment programs for nonviolent users of drugs such as crack. (By Damian Dovarganes -- Associated Press)

 

 

As the nation’s inmate population climbs toward 2.5 million, the U.S. Sentencing Commission is considering alternatives to prison for some offenders, including treatment programs for nonviolent drug users and employment training for minor parole violators.

The commission’s consideration of alternatives to incarceration reflects its determination to persuade Congress to ease federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws that contributed to explosive growth in the prison population. The laws were enacted in the mid-1980s, principally to address a crime epidemic related to crack cocaine. But in recent years, federal judges, public defenders and probation officials have argued that mandatory sentences imprison first-time offenders unnecessarily and disproportionately affect minorities.

If the commission moves ahead with recommending alternatives to Congress, it would send a strong signal to state sentencing commissions and legislatures, and could pave the way for a major expansion of drug courts and adult developmental programs for parolees, advocates said.

“We are leading the world in incarcerating adults, and that’s something Americans need to understand,” said Beryl Howell, one of six members of the commission, which drafts federal sentencing guidelines and advises the House and Senate on prison policy. “People should be aware that every tough-on-crime act comes with a price. The average cost [of incarceration] across the country is $24,000 a year per inmate. . . . It’s going up far faster than state budgets can keep up.”

About 2,000 drug courts nationwide spend between $1,500 and $11,000 per offender, according to the National Drug Court Institute. Those scattered courts handle only a small fraction of the 1.5 million nonviolent drug offenders who are arrested and charged with a crime, said C. West Huddleston, chief executive of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.

The courts operate under similar principles: At sentencing, a judge gives a nonviolent offender the option of going to prison or committing to a rigorous treatment program, where he or she submits to frequent tests and supervision. The aim is to reduce the 67 percent recidivism rate of addicted offenders.

The government has established a discretionary grant program, operated by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which is distributing $13 million to drug court programs this year.

“Drug courts are the most successful strategy in terms of reducing crime, but they’re tremendously underutilized,” Huddleston said. “I think a Sentencing Commission recommendation to U.S. courts would create momentum. It’ll wake up state legislatures. It’s a conversation that should have been had years ago.”

The commission held a symposium to discuss alternatives to incarceration in July after a study this year by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States revealed that more than one in 100 American adults are in jail or prison. That study was followed by a Bureau of Justice Statistics report in June that showed that a record 7.2 million people are under supervision in the criminal justice system. The cost, about $45 billion a year, has forced states such as California to export inmates to private prisons as far away as Tennessee.

Jeffrey L. Sedgwick, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s office of justice programs, said the burgeoning prison population might be worth the cost. Research has shown that crime rates decline as the incarceration rate rises, he said. “In other words, as the number of people under correctional supervision goes up, crime goes down.”

Sedgwick said the cost of housing prisoners should be weighed against other factors, such as the cost for victims of violent crimes to piece their lives back together. He said conservative estimates put the cost of violent crime at about $17 billion.

But the Justice Department is open to discussing options that might reduce prison overcrowding and costs, and is waiting to see what the commission recommends, Sedgwick said. “We’re not necessarily going to oppose it out of hand, but we say be real careful, we recommend more study,” he said.

Howell said maintaining a prison population equal to the size of a major U.S. city “is inconsistent with what Congress had in mind with the Sentencing Reform Act” of 1984, which created the commission.

“Our purpose is not just to issue guidelines setting forth the severity of punishment, but to provide guidelines to judges for the form of that punishment,” Howell said. “The commission has spent most of its time on the severity. It is somewhat new for us to look at the form of the punishment, and that’s where alternatives come in.”

The commission’s consideration of alternatives comes the year after it defied the Bush administration by relaxing tough sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenders and making its decision retroactive, so that thousands already in prison could seek release before the end of their terms. About 4,000 mostly nonviolent offenders have taken advantage of the policy so far, according to members of the commission and the federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Justice Department, U.S. attorneys and the National District Attorneys Association strongly opposed easing the guidelines for crack cocaine offenders and making them retroactive. But the reaction to possible prison alternatives has not been as pronounced.

“My experience tells me that if the drug court is properly constituted and has the buy-in of judges, prosecutors and parole officials, they are very effective,” said Tom Sneddon, interim executive director of the district attorneys group and a former Santa Barbara, Calif., prosecutor who helped establish a drug court there.

“But there are some courts that are shadow programs that they use to cycle people back into society and not send them to prison, and have no real substance at all,” Sneddon said.

Another program under consideration would allow judges to develop rehabilitation programs for parolees based on their needs — such as employment, education or drug treatment. Parolees could join the program upon their release from prison or after committing a minor parole violation, such as failing to update an address or a telephone number.

Texas criminal district court Judge John Creuzot said drug courts have worked in his state. He said he established a program after Texas got tough on minor drug offenders, jailing them for two years.

“Well, that thing started to break down by the late 1990s,” he said, “. . . because then we had so many people in penitentiaries that we were actually letting murderers and rapists out to make room for these small violators, low-risk violators. And so we started rethinking what we were doing.”

The 18-month program accepts low-level drug offenders with no felony records or histories of violence. “We did a study of that program, and we have a 68 percent reduction of recidivism in that program,” Creuzot said. “It’s a phenomenally successful program.”

For parolees, job training is seen as the chief remedy to repeated incarceration, said Judge Robert Holmes Bell, chief U.S. district judge for the Western District of Michigan. “In the old days, the warden of the prison used to give the person a bus ticket and $20 and say, ‘Godspeed to you,’ and away they went.”

The Sentencing Commission’s staff is drafting a proposal amending its guidelines that the panel could submit for public comment in late December. The commission could make a final decision by May 1. Congress would then have 180 days to reverse the decision.

 

Augusta’s Drug Court celebrates addicts commitment to stay clean

Published May 21, 2009

ABCAugusta.com

http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/local/45787887.html

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Nearly 50 drug addicts are celebrating their commitment to come clean. As part of National Drug Court Month, Augusta’s program honored its participants on Thursday.

Each week, The Augusta Judicial Circuit Drug Court recruits drug addicts who want to turn over a new leaf.

“It’s a system of checks and balances. We see them every day and we screen them on a regular basis each week,” said Judge James Blanchard, Drug Court.

A system that’s helped one addict turn his life around.

“It’s much harder for me now that I’ve relapsed, but I’m peaking over the whole. I’m getting over it. It’s something that I want with all my heart and soul,” said a participant.

Judge James Blanchard helped start drug court last August as a way to help addicts become clean and stay out of the prison system. Participants are given strict rules to follow during the two year period.

It includes a curfew, drug testing several times a week, counseling every day and a visit with the Judge every week; rules that have serious consequences if broken.

This mom says it took a few trips to jail before her son realized he had reached rock bottom.

“It was the fact that he was facing at least 20 years, and he was taking a good hard look at himself,” said a mom.

Her son’s only been in the program for a month, but she says it’s already making a difference.

“He’s getting his life together. I have good hopes that after the two years he’ll be on his way to being a productive citizen,” said a mom.

Judge Blanchard says drug court has a 70 percent success rate. Once participants complete the program, their charges are dropped. Then, they’re required to get background checks every year for five years to make sure they haven’t been arrested.

State Cuts Funds to Drug Courts

Published August 19, 2008 The Courier Herald Online http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=909&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1379274&om=1

The funding cuts that have swept across the board of state agencies have reached the state’s drug courts and the program that touts a recividism rate of less than 10 percent.On Monday, the Dublin Judicial Circuit’s drug court received notification that the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) appropriations for FY 2009, which includes drug court funding, will be reduced by six to 10 percent. In a letter to Georgia’s drug court coordinators, the chairman of the AOC’s Standing Committee on Drug Courts, Judge George H. Kreeger, attributed the cuts to the continued decline in state revenues. On August 7th, Governor Sonny Perdue announced a six percent cut for all state departments in order to shore up a potential state budget deficit of $1.6 billion in FY 2009. The initial announcement hit the state’s superior courts hard. The mandated cuts translates to a 60 percent cut in the courts’ operating budget, since the bulk of the courts’ budgets are salaries set under Georgia code for judges and their staff. As a result, the use of senior judges in the courts has been suspended.      In his letter to the drug courts, Keeger said, “In order to be proactive, the decision has been made to reserve 10 percent of your court’s 2009 grant budget until the state revenue concerns are resolved.” The 10 percent cut translates to about $1,900 – not a large amount in comparison to other department cuts. However the Dublin Judicial Circuit’s four county drug court operates annually on only $19,000. The funding the drug courts receive pays for drug testing kits and mental health evaluations for the program’s participants. “We won’t help less people, we’ll just have to tighten everything we spend,” said Jeannine Lloyd, coordinator of the Dublin Judicial Circuit’s drug court. The Drug Court Objective The original objective of drug courts was to reduce the rate of recidivism (a relapse into criminal behavior) for drug usage. The state’s first operational drug court started in Bibb County in 1994. Five years later the Dublin Judicial Circuit’s drug court began. The AOC introduced the drug courts as an innovative solution to handle the increasing number of felony drug related offenses. Judge William Riley of the Atlanta Community Court had praised the drug court concept when he stated, “traditional sentences may punish offenders, but do not address underlying problems an individual may have.” Rather than sending defendants to jail, drug courts focus on rehabilitating drug and alcohol offenders through treatment. A superior court judge may sentence an offender to drug court treatment and order the offender perform community service. Unlike traditional treatment programs, becoming “clean and sober” is only the first step toward drug court graduation. The 12 month program requires participants to attend two meetings a week and they are drug tested at each meeting. Upon graduation from the program, the drug charges are dismissed. After they have become clean and sober, participants are required to obtain a GED, maintain employment, stay current in all their financial obligations, including drug court fees and they must avoid places and persons of an undesirable nature. Within the year, Lloyd said most gravitate away from their old crowd and aligned with new, more suitable individuals. In 1998, the Department of Justice Technical Assistance Project and the Drug Court Clearinghouse analyzed the effectiveness of drug courts. The report stated: “Incarceration in and of itself does little to break the cycle of illegal drug use and crime, and offenders sentenced to incarceration for substance related offenses exhibit a high rate of recidivism once they are released.”      The report determined drug courts provide four specific areas of appeal: •more effective supervision of offenders in the community; •greater accountability of defendants to comply with the conditions of their release or probation; •greater coordination and accountability of public services, including reducing duplication of services and costs to the taxpayer; •and the creation of more efficient courts systems by removing minor drug offenders from the court systems that are already overloaded with cases. The program’s success rate is undeniable according to those who work in the local drug court. Lloyd calculated the success rate of all those who attended the program between 1999 and 2007. Her records indicate that 40 percent of those who attended drug court successfully graduated. Only 10% of the participants repeated their crimes after graduation, dramatically lower than the recidivism rate for non-drug court offenders. In a 15-state study by the Department of Justice, data showed that without rehabilitation, over two-thirds of released prisoners were rearrested within three years. The highest percentage of repeat offenders was among drug users. The Justice Department study stated, “The outcomes drug courts are achieving go far beyond these original goals: the birth of over 500 drug free babies to drug court participants; the reunification of hundreds of families, as parents regain or are able to retain custody of their children; education and vocational training and job placements for participants, to name a few.” “The program works,” said Lloyd. “We’ll just have to figure out how to do more with less.”

The Verdict Is In- Drug Courts Work!

 

July 9, 2008

The Verdict Is In- Drug Courts Work

 

 

Published July 9, 2008

Dawson News & Advertiser

http://www.dawsonadvertiser.com/news/

Over 500 attendees, from over sixty statewide Drug, DUI and Mental Health Court Teams, will hear the results of new scientific research that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that statewide Drug, DUI, and Mental Health Court Conference, hosted by the Judicial Council of Georgia’s Standing Committee on Drug Courts. The conference, entitled “Foundations for the Future,” will be held at the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center in Peachtree City, Georgia from June 17-19, 2008.

 

Drug, DUI and Mental Health Courts, also known as Accountability Courts, provide a successful  and cost effective way of dealing with persons with offense related to their drug addiction or mental illness. “These courts have the support of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials around the State because they all know that they work, and they work at a fraction of the cost of incarceration,” said Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, the average cost of incarceration per offender/per year at close security prisons is $14,476, while the average cost incarceration per offender at close security prisons is $18,332. The cost of Accountability Courts per offender/ per year is $4,935;  proof that these courts save taxpayer dollars.

 

“The Statewide Drug, DUI and Mental Health Court Conference provides an opportunity for professionals, officials and others in the community to come together and share lessons learned in everyday practice,” said Cobb County Superior Court Judge George Kreeger, who also serves as Chair of the Judicial Council Standing Committee on Drug Courts. Those attending will include drug court teams of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, treatment providers, probation and law enforcement officers and other dedicated criminal justice practitioners.

 

Conference highlights include:

 

Tuesday, June 17 at 9:45 a.m. — Drug Court Graduate Panel. A panel of drug court graduates will speak about their experience, what drug court has done for them and their families, and what drug court means to the State of Georgia on Tuesday, June 17.

 

Thursday, June 19 at 8:30 a.m. — Dr. Doug Marlowe, J.D., Ph.D., is a Senior Scientific Consultant, Chief of Science, Policy & Law for the National Association of Drug Court Profession; and Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Marlowe will release new scientific research on the effectiveness of drug courts.

 

Participation in an Accountability Court program includes at a minimum, substances abuse or  mental health treatment, judicial supervision every two weeks, random drug screens, home visits  and services ranging as long as two years. Team members are quick to emphasize that the Drug, DUI and Mental Health Court programs are not a “soft on crime” alternative to incarceration.

 

The Judicial Council of Georgia has appointed the Standing Committee on Drug Courts to encourage and support the implementation of drug courts in all 49 Georgia Judicial Circuits.  These courts have experienced phenomenal success and tremendous growth by reducing substance abuse, crime and recidivism.

 

For more information about the conference, please visit www.georgiacourts.org and click on “2008 Drug, DUI and Mental Health Conference.”

 

Georgia’s Tough New DUI Law Takes Effect July 1st!

Georgia’s Tough New DUI Law Takes Effect Julty 1st

For Immediate Release

July 1, 2008

For more information:

Jim Shuler, Public Affairs

404-656-6996

jshuler@gohs.ga.gov

 

 

 

 

 

 

(ATLANTA)  This year the July 4^th holiday falls on a Friday.. And for some, it’s just another summer six-pack tradition to kick-off an entire weekend celebrating the consumption of adult beverages. That means July 4th is the second most dangerous night of the year on our highways.  Too many party-people decide to leave their designated drivers behind at the barbeque and a dozen Georgians will die in alcohol-related crashes during the July 4th weekend.

 

But as of July 1^st, Georgia has a tough new DUI law on the books that Georgia’s DUI cops will be enforcing on the roads!  And it’s here just in time to kick-off Georgia’s Operation Zero Tolerance statewide DUI crackdown.

 

During the 2008 legislative session the Georgia House and Senate passed House Bill 336, creating a felony-level DUI charge for those repeat offenders who’ve stacked up four drunk-driving convictions on their ten-year driving record rap-sheets. With this change in Georgia law, multiple DUI arrests can now lead to felony convictions against Georgia’s worst case high-risk violators. 

 

Long-awaited by DUI crash victims and grieving family survivors, HB 336 is truly regarded as lifesaving DUI law for Georgia. “This landmark legislation carries heavier fines, mandatory offender evaluations and jail times, stricter probation, and longer community service penalties,” said Director Bob Dallas of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS). “It should make any responsible driver think twice before ever climbing behind the wheel while impaired.”

 

For the first time, Georgia’s new DUI Law requires first time offenders to undergo drug and alcohol evaluation. And if that evaluation deems necessary, the offenders must participate in strict, court-supervised substance-abuse treatment to decrease the likelihood of recurring offenses.  (Under the old law, drug and alcohol evaluations were only required for second and subsequent offenses.) But when those DUI offenders have been convicted a fourth time, the law is designed for public safety priorities to kick-in with mandatory felony jail time for violators.

 

Even while it was still pending, this visionary legislation already had the endorsement of GOHS, MADD, and the State District Attorney’s Association.  Bill sponsor, State Rep. Kevin Levitas (D-Atlanta) is himself a former prosecutor who perceived the random fatalities involving drunk drivers as more dangerous to the public and more frequent than the murder rate.  “Sadly in murder cases, victims and perpetrators often know each other. But there is this randomness to DUI deaths where a car just suddenly crosses over lanes of highway and without warning kills someone on their way to church or school,” said Rep. Levitas. 

 

“Until HB 336 was passed, even four-time shoplifting offenders were treated as felons under Georgia law, but  a fourth-time DUI was still just a misdemeanor here,” said MADD-Georgia State Executive Director Denise Thames. “Georgia was one of only five states left with no DUI felony law. Now we have serious consequences for those repeat offenders.  A third time DUI offender needs a tough message and it should include more than just a few days of jail time.”

 

“Few people realize there’s research that shows people drive drunk 87 times before being caught for one DUI,” said Rep. Kevin Levitas.  “Just try to calculate in your head how many times these multiple offenders may have driven drunk before they were caught the fourth time and charged and convicted under the old law.  It’s time we got their attention.”

 

Georgia’s new felony DUI law applies to offenses occurring on or after July 1, 2008.  Under its provisions:

• First and Second DUI Convictions are treated as misdemeanors..
• Third DUI Convictions are treated as high and aggravated misdemeanors..
• Fourth or Subsequent Convictions committed within ten years are treated as felonies..

                                                                                (PAGE TWO)

 

The following is a summary of HB 336 and not meant as a technical interpretation of the law.  For a full reading of the actual statute see the OZT news conference feature on our website at www.gahighwaysafety.org

 

First Time DUI convictions carry these penalties:

• Fines ranging from $300.00 to $1,000.00

A period of imprisonment from ten days to 12 months (judge may probate all but 24 hours of jail time)

• A minimum of 40 hours of Community Service for DUI at .08 BAC or above/

        Or a minimum of 20 hours of Community Service for DUI below .08 BAC

• Completion of a DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Program
•  A clinical evaluation and completion of any necessary treatment
• 12 months of probation, less any jail time served

 

Second Time DUI convictions carry these penalties:

• Fines ranging from $600.00 to $1,000.00
• A period of imprisonment from 90 days to 12 months (offender must serve 72 hours of actual jail time)
• A minimum of 30 days of Community Service
• Completion of a DUI Alcohol or Drug Risk Reduction Program
• A clinical evaluation and completion of any necessary treatment
• 12 months of probation, less any jail time served

 

Third Time DUI convictions carry these penalties:

• Fines ranging from $1,000.00 to $5,000.00
• Period of imprisonment from 120 days to 12 months (offender must serve 15 days of actual jail time)
• A minimum of 30 days of community service

• Completion of a DUI Alcohol or Drug Risk Reduction Program
• A clinical evaluation and completion of any necessary treatment
• 12 months of probation, less any jail time served

 

Fourth Time or subsequent DUI convictions carry these penalties:

• Fines ranging from $1,000.00 to $5,000.00
• A period of imprisonment from one to five years (offender must serve three months of actual jail time)
• A minimum of 60 days of Community Service
• Completion of a DUI Alcohol or Drug Risk Reduction Program
• A clinical evaluation and completion of any necessary treatment
• 5 years of probation, less any jail time served

 

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is issuing this warning to party responsibly this July 4th holiday:  During “OZT” police in Georgia will conduct major waves of concentrated patrols and sobriety checkpoints throughout the state from Friday, June 20, through Sunday, July 6, 2008 to protect innocent motorists and their families from DUI-drivers on our highways. 

 

Whether meeting a few friends after work or traveling the holiday barbeque circuit, friends should never let friends drive drunk.  Remember to designate a sober driver in advance – Before the July 4th festivities begin.  What can you do to protect your family on the highway this holiday weekend? Your best protection against a deadly encounter with a drunk driver.. Is a buckled safety belt.  So Buckle-up. Slow Down. Drive Sober.

10 Years of Sobriety

10 years of sobriety

By Meghann Ackerman
The Times-Georgian

Posted: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:07 AM EST

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February 15 is a special day for Audrey Smith. On that day in 1998, Smith decided she was going to stop using drugs. Ten years later she’s still clean and now helps other people fight their addictions to drugs and alcohol.

In 2001, Smith, 50, was hired as the case manager for Carroll County Drug Court, which, like Smith, is celebrating a 10th anniversary this year.

Since the day she was hired, Smith has been dedicated to Drug Court.

“I’ll be here until they burn the building down and then I’ll set up in the parking lot,” she said.

Smith’s job has tested her sobriety. When a client goes back to life of drugs or dies from their addictions, Smith said it’s hard on her. In 2006, her younger brother, Anthony North, died of a heart attack caused by his drug use.

“I’ve lost so many people,” she said. “The fact remains that my brother died and I had to go on. That’s what he’d want.”

During hard times, Smith remembers what she tells many of her clients about sobriety.

“You’re got to want it as bad you want that next hit,” she said.

Smith came from what she called a “healthy” family. When she was young, she and her two brothers traveled around the world because their father was in the Air Force. Eventually the family settled in Carrollton and Smith attended West Georgia College and the Massey School of Business in Atlanta. It was in college that she started using drugs.

“It started during the parties at college,” she said. “I made the choice to use drugs. No one put a gun to my head. Once I got into it, I didn’t know how to stop.”

The advent of crack in the 1980s furthered Smith’s drug use.

“That’s what I fell in love with cocaine,” she said.

Cocaine and crack were Smith’s drugs of choice and early on in her addiction she was able to afford her habit by having well-paying jobs.

“Back in the day, you were called a functional addict,” she said. “Pretty soon that money you make is going downhill.”

Eventually, Smith was no longer a functional addict. She left her children with her mother and was homeless for awhile. She was arrested 23 different times in Carroll County on shoplifting charges. Her parents assumed their daughter was going to die.

“My daddy told me, ‘We had to put insurance on you so we knew we’d have money to bury you,’” she said.

During one of her final appearances in court Superior Court Judge Aubrey Duffey had harsh words for Smith.

“The last time he said, ‘Miss Smith, I’m tired of you going in and out of my stores,’” she said.

On the four counts of shoplifting she was charged with, Smith said three were tried that day and she received a total of 15 years, of which she served 18 months. Although she was sober when she left jail, Smith said she didn’t stick with a treatment program.

Within three months of being free, Smith was using drugs again. On Feb. 15, 1998, she decided to change that and asked for help. The first step to getting better, she realized, was leaving Carroll County.

“Sometimes it takes a geographical change,” she said. “I had to stop speaking to my cousins and stop seeing my uncle and brother. Eventually, if you sit in a barbershop for long enough, you’re going to get a haircut.”

After six months at a treatment facility in Valdosta, Smith was a resident manager. But after a year of sobriety, she had to go back to jail for another count of shoplifting she had not answered for. This time, Smith said she used her 15 months in prison to improve herself by attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings and finding faith.

“This time I went in there and I did it right,” she said. “When I came out, I kept doing it.”

Meanwhile, the same judge who told Smith he was tired of dealing with her shoplifting charges and other members of the community had started Drug Court.

“I was the original Drug Court judge,” said Maryellen Simmons, who is now a public defender. “Judge Duffey wanted to start it and I was assigned as the judge.”

Tracy Wilson, a counselor and founder of the Carroll Meth Awareness Coalition, was the program’s treatment provider and director. She was also the parole board’s counselor and met Smith after she got out of jail the second time.

“I was doing all of the counseling for the parole board. She (Smith) had been running a half-way house she was living in south Georgia,” Wilson said. “She had gotten herself sober and was doing well, but she had to go back and answer for a crime that came up.”

When more funding became available for Drug Court, Wilson said she immediately thought of hiring Smith — who has lived what Drug Court aims to teach — as a case manager.

“It gives us an alternative to incarceration. It gives us an option that saves the county a lot of money. It also gives our citizens who have become addicted a chance to better themselves,” Wilson said.

Simmons said hiring Smith helped recovering addicts because they had someone who understood their troubles and how hard it is to stay sober.

“Being a recovered addict, she could relate to clients in a way Tracy and I couldn’t,” Simmons said. “Because she was going to meetings, she kept up with people. It’s really helpful that she understood what they were going through and what it takes to get them clean.”

Along with staying sober, Smith had to regain the trust of her family and friends.

“When my daughter was 6, I left her with my mom. I missed my son’s graduation because I was in prison. I can’t get that back, but I can be there for them now,” she said. “My grandbabies never saw me in addiction. I’ve got my diamond rings back. I don’t have to pawn them.”

When she’d walk into someone’s house, Smith said they would hide their valuables. Now, she said, she lives with her parents, who can trust her again; her father co-signed on the car she bought four years ago.

Smith said her 40s, her first sober decade, were the best years of her life.

“Today I am somebody. I’m a lady. I’m a woman of God who loves people,” she said. “I’ve been able to take a cruise. That’s something I used to think about when I was high.”

Wilson said Smith’s story is a model for what Drug Court aims to do.

“That is a huge accomplishment,” she said of Smith’s 10 years of sobriety. “She went from being a person who really was a drain on our community to someone who is putting it back together. That’s important: Giving back some of what you’ve taken away.”

In 2003, Susan Bagby took over as the director of Drug Court and immediately saw Smith’s dedication to the program and sobriety.

“She lives this,” Bagby said. “You can feel it exuding from her body how much she believes in recovery.”

Sometimes, though, Smith has to be reminded to slow down. In the past year she had three strokes. But health problems haven’t dampened Smith’s spirit. She laughs at how her life has turned around and credits her years of addiction for being able to help people now. Ten years ago, Smith said, she was looked down upon, but now she counts judges, lawyers and police officers among her friends.

“They believe in me. Now I have people who looked down on me years ago who call me for help,” she said. “Whoever thought a convicted felon would sit at a table with a judge?”

Helping addicts regain their lives is what Drug Court is designed to do.

“We recognized that sending people to prison wasn’t going to solve their problem,” Simmons said.

Participants in Drug Court have a strict set of rules they have to adhere to or they could be facing fines or jail time.

“First and foremost, they need to stay clean,” Bagby said.

Participants also need to have a job, attended regular counseling sessions, earn a GED or high school diploma and submit to regular drug testing.

“Staying busy is conducive to recovery,” Bagby said.

Although Drug Court, which is a two-year program, can have up to 50 participants, Bagby said there are 35 involved this year. Because of how hard recovery can be, some people chose not to participate or end up violating terms of their participation.

“We’re about half and half for successes and failures,” Bagby said. “We’ve had 11 graduates in the part 12 months and from what we know, most of them are doing well.”

In the past ten years, a total of 72 people have successfully completed Drug Court.

The Family Dinner Deconstructed

About a decade ago, research started appearing on the family dinner, and the news was uniformly good.

Children who ate with their families were less likely to do drugs, smoke, have eating disorders or become depressed. They were better at reading, less likely to end up in the hospital for asthma and had better grades. And perhaps most shocking of all, in rare instances they could apparently demonstrate exemplary table manners. (Scientists have been unable to replicate this last finding on a consistent basis, however.)

Dads and moms across the country took note and began rearranging schedules. Meeting were canceled, work dinners declined, tuna casseroles purchased. It worked. By 2005, a study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse — one of the country’s foremost advocates of the dinner hour — indicated that the number of teenagers who ate with their families had increased by a whopping 23 percent since the late ’90s.

Now, there is no doubt that dinner is a noble pursuit. But research on its benefits does raise a question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

In other words, does dinner itself offer some magical protection, or is something else going on?

David Dickinson, a professor of education at Vanderbilt University, says this remains an open question.

“It’s possible that some of these findings are occurring because the ability to organize a mealtime and come together may be just one indicator of a family that is intact and functional,” Dickinson says.

Basically, strong families are able to sit down together each night and eat, and strong families — rather than regular meals — produce healthy kids.

A Closer Look

Dickinson has done his own research on the family meal. Several years ago, he and a group of researchers from Harvard wanted to figure out why some kids learned to read early while others lagged behind.

They did this by looking at family routines, such as how often families read to their children, ate with their children and played with their children. When they started the study, Dickinson says the group fully expected that reading would be the most important contributor to early literacy.

Instead, Dickinson says, they found that mealtimes “were a much stronger predictor of how later development would go for children’s language and literacy development.”

And so that was the headline: Family dinner equals early reading.

But as Dickinson will tell you, if you looked more deeply at the research you might come to a different conclusion. It turns out that the verbal content of dinner was really important. The kids who did well didn’t just eat dinner with families, they ate dinner with families that maintained complex conversations rich with explanation and storytelling.

“When a new word was used — like ‘reptile’ — the parent that would stop and say, ‘You know, like a snake’ — or say something that would give the child a definition of what that meant, and those interactions were very powerful,” Dickinson explains.

Dinner provided an opportunity for children to be exposed to these language behaviors on a regular basis. But dinner in a more-limited verbal environment apparently didn’t have the same effect.

And this kind of thing is true in a variety of studies on dinner. While the headlines tout the power of sitting together over a plate of meatloaf, often when you look beneath the surface, the clarity of that picture muddies.

Barbara Fiese, a professor at Syracuse University, produced a study which indicated that children with asthma who ate dinner with their families were less likely to end up in the emergency room. But as with the Dickinson study, it turned out that the specific behaviors that the families engaged in were critical to producing this result.

In order for the family dinner to have a benefit, parents had to demonstrate interest in a child’s day, regularly express empathy, and organize the dinner in a fairly specific way, such as assigning roles like table setting and making sure that family members began and finished dinner at the same time.

So is it possible for a dysfunctional family to sit down together each night and benefit?

“They can if the meal is conducted in a way to support healthy development,” Fiese says.

Don’t Dismiss Dinner

While it may be that the good news on dinner is premature, it’s also too early to dismiss the possibility that the meal itself substantively contributes to family well-being.

To answer this question, researchers need to do an experimental intervention where similar families are randomized into regular family meal groups and non-regular family meal groups. Thus far, no study of this kind has been undertaken.

In the meantime, as David Dickinson says, it’s probably a good idea to keep the dinner hour going. As he points out, dinner is one of the few times in modern life when families can sit down together, speak face to face, and build relationships. All things, he says, which simply can’t hurt.

Judges plead with county for bigger jail

Clarke County needs both a larger jail and more programs to rehabilitate criminals and ease them back into society, local judges told a new criminal justice task force Monday.

“The conditions (at the jail) are, in my opinion, horrific,” Athens-Clarke State Court Judge Kent Lawrence said. “The jail is just not, in my opinion, a suitable environment for the deputies who have to work there (and) the inmates being housed there. It’s a public safety issue.”

The population of the aging jail has exceeded the 338-inmate capacity for years, creating a dangerous environment for both deputies and inmates and costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to house inmates out of county, according to officials. Change is overdue, three judges and other county officials said.

Lawrence recommended larger holding cells at the Clarke County Courthouse, larger courtrooms at the jail and new technology to allow judges to hold hearings and lawyers to meet with clients via video, cutting down on transportation costs.

Poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are the root causes of the rising jail population, Clarke County Superior Court Judge David Sweat said. Most Superior Court defendents are indigent and “quasi-homeless,” so they’re hard to keep track of if they’re released and they can’t afford ankle monitors, Sweat and Judge Lawton Stephens said.

Many people are caught in a cycle – they are sentenced to probation, then steal or use drugs and wind up right back in jail, Sweat said.

“It’s the same folks,” he said. “We see them all the time.”

At any given time, 30 or 35 people are in jail because they didn’t pay child support, but they can’t pay it when they’re in custody and can’t work, Lawrence said. Such people need a work-release program where law enforcement can keep an eye on them but they can earn a living, he said.

The judges touted a diversion center scheduled for construction next year, drug, DUI and mental health courts and day centers where probationers report on a daily or weekly basis for counseling and treatment. Such programs reduce the chance of recidivism, and more are needed for offenders who aren’t considered dangerous, they said.

“We’re always looking for alternatives to incarceration,” Stephens said.

The task force will be responsible for overseeing planning for a new or expanded Clarke County jail, evaluating punishments and rehabilitation programs that don’t involve jail time and streamlining the overall criminal justice system to reduce overcrowding at the jail.

“I don’t think we’ve always had enough cooperation and collaboration, although I will tell you that is changing, and I’m very pleased,” Mayor Heidi Davison said.

The task force, chaired by Athens-Clarke commissioners Elton Dodson and Harry Sims, met for the first time Monday, but Davison won’t officially appoint its members until tonight’s commission meeting. They will include two lawyers, two University of Georgia law professors and three other Athens residents.

The task force is supposed to report to the commission by May, but Dodson already has said it’s likely to miss that deadline.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 020508

 February 5, 2008

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/020508/news_20080205032.shtml

DUI/Drug Court Receives Grant

The Georgia Power Foundation presented Friends of the Court with a $2,500 check Friday, Jan. 25, to help fund Burke County’s DUI/Drug Court. In a letter to the organization, Susan Carter, executive director of the Georgia Power Foundation, said they were glad to give support to a court that offers alcohol and drug recovery programs to its participants. Pictured are, from left, Georgia Power employee Louia Sapp; Betty White, public relations chairperson of Friends of the Court; Laura Riska, CSRA probation officer; State Court Judge Jerry Daniel; and John Hamilton, newly appointed DUI/ Drug Court coordinator.

January 29, 2008

The True Citizen

http://www.thetruecitizen.com/news/2008/0130/News/057.html

DUI court is a sobering solution

Recidivism rates drop dramatically for DUI court grads, study shows

By Stephen Gurr
sgurr@gainesvilletimes.com

document.write(writeModDate(”Dec. 9, 2007 4:05 a.m.”));POSTED  Dec. 9, 2007 4:05 a.m.

One after another, the stories of redemption for repeat DUI offenders were told by Hall County State Court Judge Charles Wynne in a recent courtroom graduation ceremony.

Janice changed her environment, went to church and resolved to only spend time with “positive people.”
Charles was ready to put a gun to his head and end his own life. Now he plans to enter the seminary.
Robert struck a tree in a drunk-driving wreck and thought he had hit a child. The waking nightmare served as his wake-up call.

Jesus used to come home drunk and have to make his own dinner. Now his wife has hand-made tortillas waiting for him after work.

A year after being ordered into Hall County’s DUI court, these participants and many others came through with changed lives, by their own accounts. And while the focus on the strict, three-stage program is on reducing recidivism, the personal transformations can’t be overlooked.

“Certainly the public safety aspect is first and foremost,” Wynne said. “But this program is also about lives that have been strengthened and families that have been restored.”

Now in its fourth year, Hall County’s DUI court has graduated 233 repeat offenders. They went through a 12-month period of forced sobriety that required court appearances every other week, regular drug and alcohol screens, home visits from deputies, group and individual therapy and mandatory Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Unlike Hall County’s felony drug court, the program is not voluntary, and no charges are dismissed upon its completion. It is ordered by the court as a condition of probation for most people who have been convicted of multiple DUI offenses.

Many, if not most, enter the program grudgingly. Some fail and serve out the balance of their probation in jail after progressively harsher punishments don’t bring compliance. Others emerge with praise for the program.

“When I first came into the program I didn’t have that warm, fuzzy feeling,” said 32-year-old Jason, who graduated from DUI court in 2006 and has returned since then to speak to participants at their commencement. “I was miserable. I just wasn’t putting myself into it.”

Six months into the program, he relapsed and was nabbed by a surprise drug test. He considers that relapse the turning point.

“At that point I actually realized what I wanted out of life, and it didn’t involve drugs and alcohol,” Jason said. “It was a chance to let my head clear up, get my life back on track and see all the positive things that come from being clean and sober.”

Jason credits DUI court with the life changes he’s seen, including several job promotions and a return to college to pursue a degree in social work.

“I look back on the program and see nothing but positives,” he said.

No gray areas
On a recent Thursday afternoon, there is a line of convicted drunk drivers who are not in the same place that Jason is today. On this day, they will be taken to task and handed the dreaded green sheet of paper that details their court-ordered sanctions, which can range from a day of sitting in court to community service to jail time.

Before entering the courtroom, they were required to blow into a hand-held alcohol sensor to prove they hadn’t been drinking.

State Court Solicitor-General Larry Baldwin calls out their names loudly, so that he can be heard above the low murmur of the crowded courtroom. They approach the podium to face the judge.

“Judge, (the participant) is struggling with her recovery,” Baldwin announces, before listing off her infractions.

Failure to arrive for scheduled drug screens. A positive screen for marijuana. Failure to attend AA meetings.

It’s not the first time she’s broken the rules, and on this day, she will leave the courtroom in handcuffs, escorted by a deputy to a holding cell. She will spend the next 18 days in jail, and be held to a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the five months following her release.

“You built yourself 18 days in jail,” Wynne tells the young, single mother. “I take no pleasure in sending you to jail, but there are consequences. Now, you can do this program, but you’re going to have to take it more seriously.”

Many people are taken off to jail on this Thursday. Most are “Phase One” participants, who have not, for whatever reasons, been able to stick to the regimented plan laid out for them and graduate to the next phase.

Stephanie Woodard, the defense attorney who acts as advocate for DUI court participants, says their success in the program “is entirely dependant on how much responsibility they take.”

Repeat offenders accustomed to using trade-offs and manipulations to get away with their transgressions will find no gray areas here, Woodard said.

“As a society, we learn to avoid consequences,” Woodard said. “And this program is about facing consequences.”

For every person sent to jail, however, there are that many and more in the so-called “good groups.”

These are brought before the judge en masse as Baldwin announces they have been following the program to the letter and will not be recommended for sanctions. They are rewarded with applause, something encouraged in accountability courts, and gift cards from local merchants like Sears and Longstreet Cafe that are given out by random drawing.

But Wynne is quick to note in an interview that his court “is not a program that is soft on repeat DUI offenders.”

“Rather, it’s something that combines an appropriate jail sentence with a structured program thereafter that helps address the underlying problem,” Wynne said. “Certainly jail has its place, but if you don’t address the underlying addiction problems, then you’re just delaying the person being back on the street, drinking and driving.”

Award-winning program
When Hall County started its DUI court in 2003, it was one of only three pilot programs in the state. There are now 13 DUI courts in Georgia, with Hall County’s program an acknowledged leader, said Jane Martin, associate director for children, families and the courts at Georgia’s Administrative Office of the Courts.

Martin points to a study that showed persons who were convicted of a repeat drunk-driving offense prior to the advent of Hall County’s DUI court were four times more likely to be caught driving drunk again within two years than the program’s graduates.

Only 5 percent of Hall County’s 233 DUI court graduates have committed another drunk-driving offense, compared with a recidivism rate of 19 percent for those who don’t go through the program, according to an independent study by Applied Research Services.

Wynne’s program is unique in that it is bilingual, offering a treatment track for Hispanic DUI offenders who speak little or no English. During a typical court hearing, as many as one-fifth of the participants are seated in a section of the gallery with an interpreter translating the proceedings for them.

The all-inclusive aspect of the program, combined with its statistically backed track record of success, helped earn Hall County’s DUI court recognition this year as Innovative Court Program of the Year from the Georgia Council of Court Administrators.

“You don’t get the award unless you’re an established program with proven effectiveness,” Martin said. “What Judge Wynne does is pretty incredible to me.”

Said Debbie Mott, assistant director for treatment services for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit, “Those of us who call Hall County home are fortunate to have officials who believe in these programs, from judges to prosecutors to county commissioners.”

Wynne, who along with Baldwin and other court officials fit the DUI court into an already packed docket of cases, takes satisfaction in what he calls the “intangible rewards.”

“To hear a graduate thank this court program for allowing them to have their family back, to get their job back, to get their life back, those are priceless, intangible awards over and above the specific public safety benefits to this county,” Wynne said.

Said Baldwin, the prosecutor, “We always hear so much from the graduates: ‘I bought my first car. I bought my first house. I got my first promotion.’ We hear about a lot of firsts.”

On commencement day, new graduate Charles eagerly took the microphone to testify how the program and his own personal faith helped him turn his life around. “Today I have purpose in my life,” he said.