Pubdate: Wed,  5 Mar 2003
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2003 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Kate McCann

EX-ADDICT HATES BEING ANTI-DRUG POSTER CHILD

Officials Use Mug Shots To Shock Teens

PEKIN, Ill. -- Penny Wood agreed last month to let authorities publish 
photographs of her that graphically depict the ravages of methamphetamine 
use, thinking that this unusual provision of a plea bargain agreement to 
escape a long prison sentence might deter others from using the homemade drug.

Now, though, local distribution of the photos has become something of a 
modern-day scarlet letter for Wood, who says she can scarcely walk down the 
streets of this central Illinois river town without people pointing and 
whispering. She is the butt of jokes on local radio, and one of her 
grandsons said he worries that the "after" picture in which "Grandma looks 
purple" will show up in his elementary school.

But Downstate prosecutors say they plan to keep circulating the pictures, 
which have become the centerpiece of a public campaign against 
methamphetamine use. They believe the pictures are convincing local 
teenagers with a surprisingly effective argument that meth might make them 
ugly.

Prosecutors' refusal to back down in the face of Wood's complaints and 
threats of a lawsuit illustrates just how concerned authorities are 
becoming about meth, as the powerfully addictive drug gains popularity 
across the state. Methamphetamine which belongs to the same class of drugs 
as cocaine, is a particular problem in rural areas, where many of its 
ingredients can be found in farm fertilizers, but it's reportedly growing 
in use in Chicago and the suburbs.

State officials share the concern. At the urging of Atty. Gen. Lisa 
Madigan, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced a measure 
Tuesday that would sharply increase penalties for meth manufacturers who 
endanger children--doubling the maximum sentence to 120 years.

But in Pekin, just south of Peoria, law-enforcement officials have a 
campaign going they think is proving effective at the local level.

The idea was born recently when Tazewell County State's Atty. Stewart 
Umholtz sorted through before and after pictures of Wood, a meth addict who 
has been charged several times with drug offenses.

In the first picture, a police booking photo from a drug arrest in 1998, 
Wood was a full-faced, youthful-looking woman. In the second, a 2002 
booking photo, Wood is a gaunt and sickly 40-year-old with dry, cracked 
facial skin and poor color.

"When I first saw the two, it was apparent the photographs themselves 
described the dangers of methamphetamine use better than any words I can 
ever use," Umholtz said.

Not long after, Umholtz's office offered a plea bargain that would free 
Wood on probation if she would consent to the public use of her photos.

"The state is allowed to use booking photos for drug education purposes," 
the agreement said. "No identifying information shall be used."

Wood signed the document, and as a result prosecutors agreed to lower her 
sentence to the 32 days she had already served in the county jail and 4 
years of probation. Wood, who had been convicted of drug possession once 
before, could have received 30 years of prison time if she had been 
convicted of unlawful criminal drug conspiracy.

Her understanding of the agreement, she now says, is that her photographs 
would be used in a low-key awareness program, maybe at local drug treatment 
and prevention programs. She says she also believed that because Umholtz's 
office agreed not to supply her name along with the photographs, no one 
would find out who she was.

"It was to be used for drug education purposes only, to keep kids off 
drugs," Wood said. "Because that picture would. If that picture doesn't 
shock a child, I don't know what will."

Local officials thought so too. Before long, the photos were posted at the 
local Boys & Girls Club, the probation office and on the Web site of 
Umholtz's office. High school officials also plan to post the pictures, and 
police in neighboring jurisdictions have asked for copies.

In accordance with his agreement, Umholtz never released Wood's name in 
conjunction with her photos on educational materials. But in Pekin, a city 
of 33,000, that hasn't made much difference. Newspapers have run her name 
with the photos, and everybody knows who Wood is by now anyway.

The photos they have seen around town have persuaded at least some 
teenagers to stay off meth.

"It's disgusting," said Jon Behrends, 18, referring to Wood's photos.

"It made me see what it does to you and the effects that it has on your 
body," said Chris Lang, 18.

That reaction is exactly what Umholtz said he had in mind. His intent was 
not to punish Wood, he said, but to scare kids away from the drug.

"I have kids who are rapidly approaching their teen years," Umholtz said. 
"And every parent's worst nightmare is to have a kid addicted to this drug."

But a mile and a half away from the Tazewell County Courthouse, Wood 
hunkers down in her cluttered apartment, chain-smoking Marlboros and 
cursing the day she signed the agreement. She said she is in an outpatient 
rehabilitation program and that she is clean and sober today.

Her main objection is the public humiliation the dissemination of the 
photos has caused her and, she says, her four children and 10 grandchildren 
scattered mostly around Tazewell County.

"I have no problem trying to help keep people off drugs because it is 
really my life completely," Wood said. "But they went about it wrong. I've 
paid for my mistakes. I don't want my grandchildren to keep paying for my 
mistakes."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens