Pubdate: Mon, 12 Aug 2002
Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Copyright: 2002 The Evansville Courier
Contact:  http://www.courierpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/138

DRUG COURT

The Issue: "Jane" is first to successfully complete program. Our View: 
Process uses proven method for combating addictions.

Vanderburgh County's Day Reporting Drug Court turned out its first 
"graduate" last week when a 34-year-old wife and mother of two completed 
the program.

The Superior Court drug court was the brainchild of Judge Wayne Trockman, 
who set it up as a means of motivating nonviolent felony drug and alcohol 
offenders to combat their addictions while avoiding prison. The process 
that "Jane," the first graduate, went through involves daily reporting to 
the court, participation in 12-step groups, and frequent urine tests. It is 
a proven, relatively low-cost approach to recovery that has been utilized 
by courts in other cities.

Here, the court has been in existence for only a year and a half. Just a 
year ago, drug court administrator Debbie Mowbray was talking about a cap 
of 30 participants, reports Courier & Press staff writer Byron Rohrig. Now, 
however, the program has 61 participants, and just added its fourth 
full-time staff member.

This has to be encouraging for all who believe that the nation's 
lock-them-up war on drugs is failing. Indeed, for every participant who 
makes it through this program, that is one less person in jail or prison 
and one more person who acquires a second chance at a fruitful life.

"Jane," the first participant to successfully complete the program, talked 
last week of her seven-year binge on prescription painkillers and how it 
took away her ability to to be a wife, a mother, a daughter and a friend. 
She has come a long way from the person who was arrested trying to pass a 
forged prescription.

For certain, the court and its staff helped "Jane" find herself and her 
humanity, something a prison cell doesn't often do. As to her graduating, 
addicts and alcoholics who successfully find recovery tend to wince at the 
word "graduate." That is because it indicates that something has been 
completed. And they know that staying clean and sober is a lifelong 
process, one that is never really finished.

Even so, "graduate" is a positive word, and what is happening in the drug 
court is a most positive process. Just ask "Jane."
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