Dougherty Mental Health Court a National Model

Published July 21, 2009
Calton Fletcher, Metro Editor
www.AlbanyHerald.com
http://www.albanyherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=4447

ALBANY – In a morning session of the Dougherty County Superior Court’s Mental Health Court, Judge Stephen S. Goss admonishes a defendant about taking her medication.

He warns another that he must let the court’s probation officer know when he moves. Goss tells an individual she must be screened for illegal substances twice a week and must attend a support meeting every day. He also sets a probation revocation hearing for a young man who is already housed in the Dougherty County Jail.

Without the trappings of typical Superior Court sessions, Goss converses freely with each person sitting in the defendant’s chair, rebukes only mildly and offers an explanation of the proceedings without the use of legalese.

“If you get out (of a state facility) and get in trouble again, you’re going to force my hand,” he tells one. “We’re getting to the point where your options are (stay at the facility) or (go to) jail.”

Goss took time to briefly explain the particulars of each case to four visitors who intently watched the proceedings Monday morning. Judge Steven S. Unpingco, Mental Health Court Coordinator William J. Brandshagen, Clinical/Forensic Psychologist James J. Kiffer and Court Management Officer Antonette S. Padua, all officials with the Judiciary of Guam, were on hand to learn the particulars of the Dougherty County Mental Health and Substance Abuse Court program, the first of its kind in Georgia.

Developed in 2002 by Goss, Dr. John Burns with the Albany Area Community Service Board and Annette Bowling with the Albany Advocacy Resource Center, the Mental Health/Substance Abuse Division of Dougherty Superior Court is a response to the court system’s continued cycling of people with mental illness and substance abuse problems through the local court system.

“I kept seeing the same faces come through the system, so what we were doing with these people who had mental illnesses obviously wasn’t working,” Goss said after Monday’s court session. “In addition to the court system, local law enforcement and mental health organizations were also dealing with this same core group of people.

“We got together and came up with a plan to address these people’s special needs in the court system.”

At the time, there was a similar court functioning in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and another that dealt with what Goss called “more quality-of-life cases” in San Bernardino, Calif., and Albany officials studied these courts’ programs as theirs developed.

But for the most part, local officials were on their own.

“We learned what others were doing in similar programs, but there were no guidelines at the time,” Goss said. “It was trial and error, mostly. Every court system is different, and we had to decide what worked best for ours.”

The Dougherty Mental Health Court program consists of a presiding judge, two assistant district attorneys, two assistant public defenders, a program coordinator and two case managers. Staff determines which candidates in the court system are eligible for the mental health/substance abuse program’s treatment and monitoring elements. They then separate them into three different tracks: mental health, substance abuse and co-occurring disorders.

“About 75 percent of the people we deal with are co-occurring,” Goss said. “With the volatile mix of alcohol and drugs, the patient’s mental state decompensates.”

The Guam officials, whose court system recently received a Bureau of Justice Assistance grant that will allow it to create its own mental health court, said the experience of visiting the Albany court has proved invaluable.

“It has been very informational seeing the integration of services here,” Unpingco said. “Our court system deals with very similar problems to the ones we’ve seen here, and what we’ve seen is the kind of court we’d like to develop in Guam.

“We looked at the background of Judge Goss and his court, and we were very impressed.”

Kiffer said the Dougherty court offers the kind of assistance to its clients that would benefit the North Pacific Ocean island territory.

“Guam has a very stable population,” he said. “We know the clients who will benefit from this program; they’ve been through our system. There are about 80-90 of them that we’ve identified, and a program like this would certainly benefit those individuals.”

While the Dougherty Mental Health/Substance Abuse court was the first of its kind in Georgia, the concept has quickly caught on. Eleven more have been developed or are in the planning stages in the state, while there are around 205 nationally.

In 2004-05, the Bureau of Justice Assistance decided to delegate a number of national courts as mentoring sites. Dougherty court officials applied, and their program was one of 12 finalists selected for further scrutiny. After evaluations, courts in Dougherty; Washoe County, Nev.; Akron, Ohio; Bonneville County, Idaho; and Bronx County, N.Y., were selected as national teaching sites.

“The Dougherty court is the closest match to ours,” Brandshagen said. “We visited the Bronx site for the multicultural aspect, and it was a bit overwhelming. The court here is more like our own, it’s a more rural setting.

“After visiting Albany and watching a court session, we feel our mental health court should have a similar structure. I think it will best suit our needs.”

Since the mental health/substance abuse court concept is so new, no empirical data have yet been collected and studied to determine the impact of the program.

“The first study that was conducted found that the average participant in our program went from spending 120 days a year in jail to spending 27 days a year,” Goss said. “Certainly that’s not perfection, but it’s a lot better.

“What we want most to do, though, is widen the time frame from episode to episode with our folks. And we want to lessen the severity.”

Near the end of Monday’s court session, a lady in the drug awareness program tells Goss about her improvement since her last court visit. Counselors and other officials vouch for her assessment.

“I’m healing,” she tells Goss.

“You used the right phrase; heal ‘i-n-g’,” Goss says. “Not ‘healed,’ healing. It’s a process, but in your case the process is working.

“You’ve struggled with this; you know it’s day-by-day. I’m real proud of you, proud of your progress.”

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.”

 

10 Years of Sobriety

10 years of sobriety

By Meghann Ackerman
The Times-Georgian

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

Email this story | Print this story

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.

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.

Four teenagers graduate Drug Court

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

Ending the revolving door

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.

---

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

Cracking the drunk driving problem: Fulton offers some answers

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