Pubdate: Thu, 30 May 2002
Source: Greenwood Commonwealth (MS)
Copyright: 2002 Greenwood Commonwealth
Contact:  http://www.gwcommonwealth.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1541
Author: John Martin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

DRUG COURT SEES SOME SUCCESS

Judges, law officers, counselors still ironing out kinks in program 
Leflore County's Drug Court, still in its developmental stage, 
appears to already have its first success story.

The first participant in the program, which seeks to rehabilitate 
rather than incarcerate drug addicts who commit non-violent crimes, 
has completed a 45-day residential treatment program at Denton House 
and lives with a family member. As of next week, he will have been 
sober for 90 days. He is now required to check in with Drug Court 
every two weeks, but he has gone beyond that, voluntarily attending 
weekly after-care classes.

"He's really a model participant," said Circuit Judge Betty Sanders, 
who along with Circuit Judge Margaret Carey-McCray helped bring drug 
court to Leflore, Sunflower and Washington counties.

Sanders attributes part of this participant's success to his 
supportive family, who took care of him and provided a home after he 
was released from treatment. If he stays clean, his drug court 
participation will absolve his felony charge.

But, she said, the drug court's ultimate success hinges on what 
Sanders has identified as a couple of "weak links:" the availability 
of decent housing and open spots in treatment programs.

The drug court team also is working on ironing out some 
inconsistencies, including a difference of opinion between law 
enforcement and the treatment programs in defining the term "drug 
addiction."

A Sunflower County participant has not fared as well as the Leflore 
County man. Without a clean living environment to return to, she 
moved back in with her boyfriend, a drug dealer, and relapsed, 
Sanders said. This participant is back in residential treatment in a 
Hinds County facility until the drug court can find housing for her.

When dealing with addictions, any recovery is nothing short of 
miraculous, according to Fred Guenther, the Denton House director who 
is a part of the drug court team's treatment arm. "There are going to 
be failures, but that's the nature of addiction," he said. "The name 
of the game is relapse. We're working with what is fundamentally a 
brain disease, and how we treat it is another story altogether."

Denton House is currently serving three clients from Sunflower 
County's Drug Court. Nunan Center, another residential facility in 
Greenville, serves Washington County.

While the 45-day residential program is a step in the right 
direction, it is not enough to cure the disease of addiction, 
Guenther said. Certain factors can turn a client right back around. 
"I've known plenty of people who have used the treatment center to 
get their health back, and they go back on the street and use again."

Drug court tries to find a nurturing environment to reinforce the 
treatment for the addicts it hopes to rehabilitate; but, as in the 
Sunflower County case, that environment often is not readily 
available. Drug Court participants cannot overstep other citizens 
looking for housing either.

"The list is long," Sanders said. "A lot of people need housing." 
Participants have run into another block before they even get into 
treatment.

As state-run programs, Denton House and Nunan Center charge clients 
within their districts on $100 - a popular price that brings constant 
waiting lists, according to drug court team member Lee Williams, 
director of Nunan Center. "We're both state-run, basically public, 
facilities. Private facilities, such as Solutions in Greenville, 
could probably get someone in spur-of-the-moment, but they would have 
to have health insurance, Medicaid or a huge sum of money because 
those are hospital-based units."

The state Department of Mental Health prohibits either program from 
favoring or discriminating against any potential clients. Drug Court 
participants are treated like any other clients, Guenther said. "We 
are required to have a chronological waiting list."

To maintain diversity, Guenther said he has to limit drug court 
clients to 25 percent of Denton House's total population. That 
parameter goes for any group, eh said.

Leflore County has cleared its second case for treatment, but he is 
currently out of jail and living at home. "We prefer them to go 
directly to jail because they have problem," Sanders said. "And 
because they have been in jail two weeks does not mean the problem 
has waned."

During a regular Wednesday session, the drug court team discussed a 
recommended participant rejected by Denton House when the SASSI, an 
assessment test, determined him a drug dealer without a dependency on 
drugs. The drug court program does not serve anyone who deals drugs, 
commits a violent crime or has a severe mental illness.

The two narcotics officers on the team were stumped over the man, 
whom they have known for three years as a heavy user and apparent 
addict. "Who's going to know - the man giving the test who has just 
met this guy, or us, who have known him for three years," said Sgt. 
Demetrice Bedell of the Greenwood Police Department.

Said Sanders, "Two different agencies knew the guy as an addict, but 
they are afraid his jail time altered the results of the SASSI."

Denton House uses the SASSI, which stands for Substance Abuse Subtle 
Screening Test, for all of its clients, drug court or not. Guenther 
said the test is used worldwide as a reliable test to uncover drug 
dependency and criminal tendencies.

The 'subtle' in the name SASSI reflects the subtlety of the questions 
asked, but the answers to those questions are quite vivid, he said. 
"We apply the SASSI to see if our gut feeling and professional 
assessment seems to match up with what the tests show."

The observations of drug court narcotics agents, however, have not 
matched up with the results. "When he chooses to buy a piece of crack 
over a piece of bread, he's got a problem," Bedell said. "I'm 
confused because we're sending people to treatment and they're not 
being admitted."

While the team is trying to address that discrepancy, both the legal 
and treatment branches of the program agree that lies and deception 
are the nature of both the criminal and the addict. And that presents 
assessment problems.

"Obviously if you are dealing with addicts, addicts lie," which makes 
the test necessary, said Sunflower defense attorney and drug court 
team member Marie Wilson.

Said Guenther, "A large part of addiction is lying - lying to 
yourself and others in terms of denial that you have a problem and 
lying so you can maintain the drug and alcohol abuse."
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