GA Accountability Courts News

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.

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

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

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.

BY ALAN RIQUELMY - ariquelmy@ledger-enquirer.com –

Donna Owen remembers the day her 17-year-old son was caught with drugs in his car. He was going to be the starting pitcher for his high school baseball team.

She held the hope that the telephone call from the principal telling her about the discovery was a mistake. She was wrong. That message changed her family’s life.

“He didn’t start pitching that day or any day,” she said, her words sometimes broken by emotion. “He got expelled.”

Some eight months after that day, her son and three others wore caps and gowns as they sat at the front of the assembly at the Columbus Government Center that had gathered on Tuesday in celebration of their successful completion of Drug Court. It’s a ceremony that occurs every three months in Columbus and across the country at countless drug courts.

“It’s to honor their hard work and success,” said Mary Bode, director of Drug Court. “There should be a formal ceremony.”

Juveniles who qualify for Drug Court enter a program that can last up to a year. They attend bi-weekly status hearings before a Juvenile Court judge, treatment and after-care proceedings. Upon successful completion of the program, their charges are dismissed and they can apply to have their record expunged.

Since its inception in October 2000, 201 juveniles have graduated the program in Muscogee County.

“They’re starting with a clean slate,” Bode said. “It’s huge.”

Crystal Wilson, parent of a girl who went through Drug Court a few years ago, encouraged the graduates to take advantage of that clean slate. She said it’s often easy to fall back into old patterns and associate with old friends not healthy for a drug-free life. Instead, she said the graduates shouldn’t be afraid to get outside their comfort zones and wait until they meet people who will be good friends.

“Your past does not determine your present or your future,” Wilson said. “You can make choices today that will affect who you want to be.”

Mayor Jim Wetherington referred to his days as the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections, saying he watched inmates go through the revolving doors of the justice system over and over. He commended the graduates for avoiding that cycle and taking control of their lives.

“We all make mistakes in life,” Wetherington said. “It takes a special person, it takes a caring family to get that person where he needs to be.”

For Owen, it also takes Drug Court.

“I am very proud to be standing here,” she said.

Contact Alan Riquelmy at 706-571-8622

Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 12:30 am

Savannah Morning News

A new “therapeutic court” aims to help those with mental health issues avoid future run-ins with the law.

IT MAKES little sense to keep putting someone in jail for drug crimes and the like, if their root problem is not a bent toward criminality, but a mental health issue.

The newly formed Chatham-Savannah Mental Health Court recognizes an important fact: Directing repeat offenders who may be helped by treatment to a care facility instead of a jail cell is a better deal not only for the offender, but also for taxpayers.

It’s a better deal for the offender because, even though the conditions of their probation are stringent, the program is geared toward helping the person maintain a healthy, productive lifestyle, and avoid future run-ins with the law.

For taxpayers, a major benefit is that the nonviolent offenders screened for eligibility in the program are more likely to be providing their own food and housing, working and paying taxes. In short, pulling their own weight. That’s a big contrast to the expense of providing mental health care in a prison setting.

A second major benefit for citizens in general is that if this fledgling program - modeled after other successful “therapeutic courts” in Chatham County such as drug and DUI courts - can make a real difference in the lives of the repeat offenders it hopes to help, then all those who might have been future victims will be spared the trouble.

What’s more, keeping nonviolent defendants from serving potentially long prison sentences for repeat offenses will mean less strain on an already overcrowded prison system.

The program is made possible through the cooperation of a team of prosecutors, public defenders, probation officers, law enforcement officers and treatment facilities, all working under the direction of Superior Court Judge Penny Haas Freesemann.

The mental health court calls on defendants to undergo a five-step plan, aimed at helping them understand their mental illness and begin a recovery plan, conduct a thorough self-evaluation, implement coping tools, and strengthen their commitment to sobriety and integration into the community.

The hope is that those in the program will be able to step out of the revolving door of mental health episodes, followed by run-ins with the law, followed by little or no support once they are released from incarceration.

Judge Freesemann’s mental health court, which began Sept. 20, is operating on a shoestring budget from a federal grant. But if the court fulfills its purpose of cutting down on recidivism, then local and state governments should also consider helping to fund the court operations and treatment services needed to help the program grow and be successful.

It will be an investment not only toward improved mental health for the participants, but also toward improved peace of mind for community members who might otherwise have been crime victims.

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The program is geared toward helping the person maintain a healthy, productive lifestyle, and avoid future run-ins with the law.

New program combines lots of help for long-term offenders, tough sanctions

By BETH WARREN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/17/07

Two defendants showed up drunk this summer at the Fulton County Courthouse.While that’s never a good idea, it’s especially problematic considering it was their first day in a new program for repeat DUI offenders.State Court Judge Susan Forsling says the men’s condition in court underscores the grip of addiction and the need for courts to find creative solutions to break the dangerous cycle of drinking and driving. She and Judge Brenda Cole have agreed to head Fulton County’s inaugural DUI Court program, which got under way in June combining some jail time with intensive treatment and heavy monitoring. The program, with a startup budget of $45,000, is funded through county and state money and participant fees. The first class includes a defendant with 14 prior DUI convictions. When he appeared before Forsling last month she somberly said: “You have failed the system and the system has failed you.” The man wept.But as the judge addressed her new class Aug. 9, she tempered her judgment with humor and hope. She assembled probation officers and mental health counselors and talked with each defendant about his or her problems. One man seemed surprised the judge knew that he and his wife were separated and he was having trouble finding a place to live due to his criminal record.“There’s not going to be too much about your life that I don’t know about,” Forsling said with a laugh.

Barbara Lattimore, director of Fulton County’s mental health department, said two main things help stop recidivism: peer support and heavy sanctions. Her employees are part of the DUI Court program, providing one-on-one and group counseling to help participants explore the reasons they drink. Participants also face frequent drug screenings, random home visits by probation officers and court hearings before a judge who gets to know them personally.

Georgia has a dozen DUI Courts, including programs in Gwinnett, Cherokee, Clayton, Hall and Rockdale counties. It’s part of a national trend to move toward courts that tackle special problems. Fulton officials are modeling their program after the one in Athens-Clarke County.

The judge there, Kent Lawrence, started Georgia’s first DUI Court in February 2001 and is considered a national expert, recently speaking before a congressional committee in Washington. Lawrence is a former police officer and police chief in Clarke County who worked plenty of alcohol-fueled fatal wrecks and was motivated to find a solution.

“I’ve had victims die in my arms,” he said. “I’ve had to knock on doors and tell their parents or their spouses their loved one just died because of an alcohol-related wreck. It’s usually the same reaction: they fall on their knees and start screaming.”

Lawrence remembers those haunting images when drunk drivers stand before him in his courtroom and he sentences them to jail. But, like Judge Forsling, he is also driven by compassion to get to the root of what draws the alcoholic to the bottle.

“They’re not bad people,” Forsling said. “They don’t wake up that morning and say: ‘I’m going to get in my car, crash and kill somebody.’ “

Statewide, impaired drivers were involved in crashes that killed nearly 545 people in 2005, the last year for which figures were available, said Alvin Shultz, epidemiologist for the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

Bob Dallas, the Highway Safety office’s director, said the Athens judge is helping break the cycle.

“It’s a program that seems to show success for a very difficult offender — someone who has been drinking and driving for years,” Dallas said.

Someone like Alpharetta area resident Justin Dinsmore, 30.

He admits he started drinking at age 12 and drove drunk in at least three counties for years, crashing cars, a motorcycle and four-wheelers. He said he got into several high-speed chases with police, but usually outran them in his high-powered Mustang.

But as he sped recklessly through Athens a few years ago, police closed in and Dinsmore found himself standing before Judge Lawrence.

As Dinsmore recalls, the judge was irate, tossing the four-time convicted drunk driver into the slammer for 15 months. That’s when Dinsmore said he had an epiphany: “I’m either going to be dead or in jail the rest of my life if I keep this up.” He thought about his dreams for a wife and kids and how he needed to be sober and responsible to make that happen.

The judge was there to help. He said you can often see participants begin to make life changes in up to three months.

“It’s like a light bulb,” the judge said. “It gives us chills. Their attitude changes and their appearance changes.”

Dinsmore completed the DUI Court program in 13 months and says he’s been sober for two years.

“This isn’t a program for a first offender. It’s for someone like me, someone on their last leg,” Dinsmore said of the structured program, which includes surprise home visits and lots of drug screenings. “It put me on the path of where I needed to go.”

Veteran defense attorney William “Bubba” Head, known nationally for his specialty in DUI law, said he has qualms about the program, which requires defendants to plead guilty to DUI charges.

“If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t do the program,” said Head, who often prefers to take his clients’ cases to trial.

He said he worries that the program is too rigid and if a participant fails to show up to court, fails a screening or doesn’t check in with his or her probation officer, they’ll end up kicked out of the program and behind bars for up to two years.

The judges in Athens and Atlanta say there are other types of sanctions besides revoking the defendant’s probation, which is reserved for more serious violations.

Head acknowledges that more needs to be done to stop drunk driving.

“It can destroy your life,” said the lawyer, whose DUI clients have included clergy, teachers and Supreme Court justices in several states.

To view the entire article: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/08/17/dui_0818.html 

By Sandy Hodson| Staff Writer

Sunday, January 14, 2007

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Change is coming to the Augusta Judicial Circuit, the first in decades. storyPhotos();

Andrew Davis Tucker/Staff

Incoming Chief Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet said the judges recognize the need for diversity in the courtroom.

Click photo for options

One of the first changes the Superior Court judges will initiate is filling the juvenile court judge’s position in Richmond County that has been vacant since Judge Herbert Kernighan Jr. died.

The judges are contemplating asking two or more attorneys to serve part time instead of choosing just one. And for the first time, those with business in the court might see a woman or a black judge on the bench.

In a recent interview with Chronicle editors, incoming Chief Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet said the Superior Court judges, who decide who fills the four-year juvenile judgeships, acknowledge the need for diversity in the job. The judges have always been older, white men in the past.

All applications were due Friday, Judge Overstreet said.

Another change some would like to see realized in the Augusta circuit is the creation of drug courts. Instead of sentencing drug offenders to prison or probation to succeed or fail on their own, drug courts closely supervise defendants and provide intensive treatment and counseling, and drug testing.

It would require a commitment of the judges and someone would have to supervise, Judge Overstreet said.

He estimated that drugs are responsible for the majority of criminal cases: people using or selling drugs, stealing or otherwise committing crimes to buy drugs, or committing crimes while under the influence of drugs.

“You’ve got to try something,” Judge Overstreet said.

How the judges conduct business in Superior Court also could change. Judge Overstreet said case management, not case assignment, needs overhauling.

“We just have to get on into the 21st century,” he said.

He said he hopes the court clerks’ current computer program can be updated to include case management.

Right now the judges have only a manual system of hauling cases from the entry point of arraignment to conclusion, Judge Overstreet said.

That wasn’t difficult when the circuit was small, but it’s now nearly impossible with the thousands of cases in the system.

The eight Superior Court judges also will vote on the local rules of court this spring. These rules spell out how the judges divide and assign cases.

Currently, the five judges with the most seniority are assigned to preside over civil and criminal cases. The three remaining judges are responsible for domestic cases such as divorce and child custody.

One of the biggest changes already discussed is mediation - Alternative Dispute Resolution - for domestic court cases.

In a meeting Thursday with Richmond County officials, several judges outlined their plans.

Judge Overstreet said he signed the documents earlier this month that join the Augusta circuit with the surrounding 10th Judicial District’s program.

People filing for divorce will go through the mediation process, which can be faster and cheaper than the current judicial procedure.

It should make the process less adversarial and reduce the caseloads of judges, Judge Overstreet said.

Judge Duncan D. Wheale said courts in Athens have been using mediation successfully for about 10 years.

The use of mediation might also be expanded to civil cases. Judge James G. Blanchard said it could be especially helpful to resolve cases that have been pending several years. That often happens because the parties can neither reach a settlement nor justify the expense of trial. The case stalemates, he said.

It is also difficult for complex civil cases to get to trial because of limited courtroom space, Judge Overstreet said. Richmond and Columbia counties have only two courtrooms, and Burke County has one.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.

CHANGES

Possible changes for the Augusta Judicial Circuit:

- Fill vacant juvenile court judge position

- Creation of drug courts

- Overhaul of case management with new software for court clerks’ computers

- Vote on local rules of court

- Implementing mediation for domestic court cases and possibly civil cases

From the Monday, January 15, 2007 edition of the Augusta Chronicle

By Tim Sturrock

TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER

Woody Marshall, The Telegraph

Judge Tommy Day Wilcox at a hearing in November.

• Photo gallery | Self sworn in as Superior Court judge

After 25 years making decisions that helped shape thousands of lives, Tommy Day Wilcox is moving on.

Wilcox, the second-longest serving Superior Court judge in Bibb County, said his experiences on the bench changed his life.

“I have become more understanding of the trials and tribulations of the everyday common person,” he said. “It can be a mean old world to try to live in sometimes, and I clearly understand that now.”

Wilcox, 64, is known for his efficiency, dry wit, compassion and creation of the first drug court in Georgia, which gives drug offenders the option of treatment instead of punishment. Similar drug courts now exist in at least 10 counties in Georgia including Lamar, Monroe and Laurens, he said.

A swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for today when Tripp Self, who won in a runoff against Ed Ennis last month, will officially take Wilcox’s spot on the bench.

In retiring from day-to-day court proceedings, Wilcox will now serve as a senior judge working part-time. He said he likely will continue presiding over the case of two men accused of fatally shooting Bibb County sheriff’s deputy Joseph Whitehead in March.

Wilcox, whose undergraduate and law degrees are from Mercer University, said he plans to become a legal mediator as well.

Wilcox, who grew up in Abbeville and is married with two children, worked nine years in a private law practice, taking one case to the U.S. Supreme Court, before becoming a judge in 1981.

He found aspects of the job rewarding such as the drug court and adoptions. In his last year as a full-time judge, Wilcox assigned himself the responsibility of overseeing major felony cases. Yet, he says he won’t miss his role of sentencing criminals, which he admits finding difficult.

“It’s not easy,” he said of sentencing people. “You get to know the (defendant), even if it’s a brief period of time, and you have to sit there and weigh that person’s life with what has happened to the victim. And it’s different in every single case.”

WILCOX KNOWN AS HARD WORKER

Wilcox gained a reputation for his hard work, even working for about a year in the mid-1980s while he had lymphoma, cancer of the lymph nodes. Wilcox would sometimes return to Macon to work the day after receiving treatment in Maryland.

“I was hard-headed, and if I was getting paid, I wanted to work,” he said. “That was a tough regiment to say the least, but that’s who I am.”

Linda Mosteller, his former secretary, said Wilcox was always conscientious about spending the county’s money.

Wilcox never succumbed to “robe-itus,” an arrogance about being a judge, she said. Sentences weighed heavily on him, she said.

“It shouldn’t be easy for someone to sit on the bench and sentence people to 20 to 30 years,” she said. “It affects the families a lot, too. He knows it’s not just the person it affects.”

Wilcox said the drug court he created in 1994 probably kept him from retiring earlier. The court offers drug offenders a one-year program that includes counseling and drug tests.

Wilcox started the court after getting the idea from an Athens conference. Since then, more than 1,000 people have graduated from the program.

“It was a salvation for me, because there you really got the sense you were helping people,” he said. “What a nice feeling to say at the end of the day, ‘They didn’t have a job. Now maybe we can get them a job.’ “

Wilcox said he still hears from people about how the drug court changed their lives.

Sixty percent of participants ended up failing parts of the agreement, he said.

“There, the sentencing was easier because you felt like you had truly given them a chance,” he said.

Bibb County Public Defender Lee Robinson said the drug court is Wilcox’s legacy.

“It’s difficult for (judges) to leave a legacy because they’re basically referees,” he said. “It’s a significant contribution to our community as a whole.”

“When he established it, it was a new idea and it takes someone with the kind of clout he has to get it off the ground,” Robinson said.

Robinson also credited Wilcox with maintaining a high standard of courtesy in the court, something he said has deteriorated in courts elsewhere in Georgia.

Wilcox said he never tried to lecture people but expected lawyers to be on time, not to talk when others were speaking and to show courtesy in the courtroom.

“If someone is talking … I just always say ‘OK, if y’all are having an important conversation, I’ll just sit here and wait until y’all finish your conversation then we’ll start again,’ ” he said.

The judge’s dry wit was another fixture that local attorneys remember about Wilcox’s time on the bench.

Bibb County District Attorney Howard Simms recalls being in court when a man went before Wilcox on a DUI felony charge.

The man was in his late 70s or early 80s and was eligible for first-offender status, which would clear his record. Wilcox suggested the man ask his lawyer about it.

Simms said that Wilcox explained dryly: “I would think that at your age it would be nice to check out with a clean slate.”

But Simms also remembers moments when Wilcox showed other emotions.

As the last Bibb County Superior Court judge to pronounce a death sentence in 1987, Wilcox’s voiced broke when he told Keith Patillo he would be put to death.

The sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

Wilcox admitted to being brought to tears by some of his cases, though he wouldn’t comment about specific cases.

Wilcox, who has plans to split his time between a farm in Wilcox County and his home in Bibb County, said he wants to keep his retirement low key.

“I came here over 25 year ago very quietly, and I would really like to leave very quietly,” he said.

Ex-TV newsman Savage pleads guilty in drug case

By BY NANCY BADERTSCHER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/31/06 Former Atlanta television personality Warren Savage confessed to being a drug addict today and asked a judge to give him help, not prison time.“Mr. Savage understands he has a problem and wants help. He wants to be treated,” said his attorney, Marc Cunat of Cumming.

Judge Jeffrey S. Bagley of Forsyth County Superior Court ordered the former WSB-TV anchor to undergo at least 18 months of intensive drug treatment.

Savage, 42, pleaded guilty today to possession of cocaine, which could have carried a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors dismissed a more serious charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute as part of the plea arrangement.

The judge said he will not send Savage to prison as long as he completes a treatment program that, at least initially, requires Savage to go to counseling three days a week and court one day a week.

Bagley told Savage he may have to fall back on his five years in the Marines to make it through the “very rule-oriented” drug program.

“Sometimes change is difficult. Sometimes change is painful,” the judge said. “I know you can make it …”

Savage has been in the Forsyth County Jail since investigators arrested him Oct. 4. Authorities charged him with possessing an undisclosed amount of cocaine. At a hearing today, he admitted to having a small amount of cocaine in his pocket when police arrested him.

His arrest in Forsyth County was “part of an ongoing narcotics investigation and occurred outside a business on Craemer Drive in the southern end of the county.

District Attorney Penny Penn said sheriff’s deputies found a larger amount of cocaine in a ball cap in the passenger side of Savage’s car. Savage told the judge he had taken a drug dealer to a business in Forsyth County but had no idea the man intended to buy drugs that night.

Cunat said he expects Savage to be released from jail tonight.

In August, in Gwinnett County, Savage was picked up for possession of a small amount of marijuana.

Cpl. Darren Moloney said Gwinnett police arrested Savage on Aug. 17 after responding to the Best Western Peachtree Corners on a domestic disturbance call. Savage was charged with possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana.

WSB-TV is owned by Cox Enterprises, which also owns Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/northfulton/stories/2006/10/31/1031metsavage.html