Pubdate: Wed, 24 Dec 2003
Source: Courier-Journal, The (KY)
0-6632.html
Copyright: 2003 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Author: Jessie Halladay
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

DRUG COURT IS ALL ABOUT FAMILY

Woman regains children, adds husband

Debra and Walter Mitchell were embraced by Jefferson County Family Court
Judge Eleanore Garber, who married them yesterday.

Debra and Walter Mitchell's 6-year-old daughter, Inez, watched during the
wedding ceremony.

The Mitchells celebrated their wedding with refreshments of ginger ale and
orange sherbet yesterday. Debra Mitchell will meet with a judge as the third
stage of treatment in Family Drug Court, a Jefferson County program.

Eight months ago, Debra Smith walked into Judge Eleanore Garber's courtroom
an angry woman who was losing custody of her children because of her
addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol.

Yesterday, Smith, 44, walked into that same courtroom in Jefferson County
Family Court wearing a huge smile -- ready to start anew.

She's been clean and sober for months, she regained custody of her children
last week, and yesterday she married Walter Mitchell, the man she's been
with for nearly a decade and the father of her younger daughter.

"I had a real bad attitude," said Smith, whose last name became Mitchell
yesterday. "I knew I had a problem. It was just doing something about it and
doing something different."

Family Drug Court, a program within Family Court, began about two years ago
as an effort to take women who were losing custody of their children because
of drug abuse and get them treatment that could eventually lead them to
reunite with their families. Women agree to go through the program
voluntarily.

The program includes three phases of treatment that combine in-patient care,
counseling and regular meetings with the judge. Debra Mitchell now enters
the third phase, which allows her to move back home with her family and meet
monthly with the judge.

She is only the fifth mother in the program -- 25 women are enrolled -- to
have gotten back her children, Garber said.

The Mitchells met about 10 years ago -- when both were addicted to crack.
Over the years, both tried to end their abuse.

For one seven-year stretch, Walter managed to stay clean as Debra continued
to battle drug use, relapsing periodically. The continued presence of drugs
in their lives kept the couple from getting married.

"I told her when she got herself straight, we would get married," he said.

About 21/2 years ago, Walter relapsed, then went back into drug treatment --
this time in North Carolina.

That left Debra with her two girls, Reva, 12, and Inez, 6. They ended up in
a homeless shelter, where Debra left the girls one day and didn't come back.
That's when family services workers removed the girls from their mother's
custody.

"I made a mistake," Debra said.

That led to her signing up for drug court -- but she didn't want to.

"Less than a year ago, she was in here cursing," Garber said after
yesterday's wedding ceremony. "She didn't think she needed it. But she very
much cares for her children."

Walter returned to Louisville just as Debra was beginning the drug court
program. After finding a place to live, he got temporary custody of the
girls so they could live with him while their mother got treatment.

It was a difficult time. Walter had to adjust to being a full-time parent --
going to the bus stop, making sure the girls did homework, making
breakfasts, lunches and dinners. And he had to go to meetings for his own
substance-abuse counseling.

In time, Debra was allowed visits with her daughters.

Then last week, she was told she could regain custody.

Finally, Debra said she could start thinking about being a whole family
again.

Yesterday's wedding, the first for Family Drug Court, was the Christmas
present that both Debra and Walter Mitchell had waited for.

"This is something we've been looking forward to in our lives -- to be a
family," Walter said. "That has come true for me, for my Christmas gift."

Reva and Inez clung to their parents with giant smiles on their faces. For
them, it's an early start to a celebration that includes not only Christmas
but both of their birthdays in the next week.

"It's a great Christmas present," said Reva, who admits that she will still
be looking under the tree for other gifts.

"She's a great mother. She may have made mistakes but that's why they put
erasers on pencils, because everyone makes mistakes."
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