Pubdate: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 Source: Daily Herald-Tribune (CN AB) Copyright: 2002 Daily Herald -Tribune Contact: http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1840 Author: Doug Brown DRUG CONVICTION 'RESCUED' WOMAN FROM LIFE OF DESPAIR If Diana Gardiner came face-to-face with the Grande Prairie RCMP constable who busted her for cocaine trafficking and set her up for a three-year stint in federal prison, she'd shake his hand. But in June 2000 Gardiner - a mother, a grandmother, and also a hard-core cocaine addict and trafficker - would probably have spit on him. Earlier that year she'd spent each of her four children's birthday and Christmas present money for a fix. For 30 years she'd been either drinking or doing drugs, or both. By that summer she was doing up to $1,000 worth of coke a day, dealing on the side to keep the money - and the drugs - coming. In early June a police crackdown collared almost 50 drug users and sellers in the Grande Prairie area, including Gardiner. "I thought I had a hold on my life. I thought I knew what I was doing," she said. A conviction on three charges of drug trafficking said different. She was sentenced to three years while her family watched from the courtroom gallery. "I blew a kiss and said I love you as I was led away." Two years later Gardiner is on parole from the federal pen, living in Grande Prairie again, and working with her former jailers to spread her message. Tuesday night she spoke to a small gathering at a public forum put on by Correctional Services Canada about how the counselling and programs she received in jail turned her life around. "I wasn't arrested, I was rescued... Jail saved my life," she said. Gardiner confronted and quelled the personal demons of childhood trauma, sexual abuse and abusive relationships at the root of her drug abuse. She worked two jobs while in prison, and now edits a monthly newsletter for female inmates. And she says she wants to begin speaking at high schools next, to stop kids before they fall into the same hell of drug abuse she did. "I want the new, improved Diana to be someone people can be proud of, especially my family." Diana is the face of corrections that the public doesn't see enough of - the over 85 per cent of former inmates who successfully reintegrate back into their communities, says spokeswoman Arlene Barnes. "One of the greatest challengers facing Correctional Services is low public awareness... often misconceptions shape what the public knows," she said at Tuesday's forum. The public meeting was also a chance for corrections to promote the growing volunteer effort in Grande Prairie. The number of federal inmates from the area is increasing along with the population, said volunteer co-ordinator Linda Price, but so is the number of people helping parolees rejoin their community. Corrections volunteers can simply pray for inmates and staff, or become involved in support, counselling, housing and activities for prisoners on release, she said. "We cannot do a complete job of getting people back into their communities without help from individuals like yourself," said Price. "There is a tender spot in every offender and it's the community's and CSC's job to bring that tender spot out." - --- MAP posted-by: Alex