Pubdate: Sat, 29 Jun 2013
Source: Times, The (Trenton, NJ)
Copyright: 2013 The Times
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/times/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/458
Author: Brendan McGrath

MERCER COUNTY DRUG COURT GRADUATES 29 RECOVERING ADDICTS FROM FIVE-YEAR PROGRAM

TRENTON - Loneliness, despair and fear - those were the three words 
that described where Lenneth Miller had landed in life when five 
years ago, after struggling through decades of alcoholism and a newer 
heroin addiction, he decided to surrender.

That's when he was facing drug charges and he decided to assess his 
life honestly. He wanted to clear his slate and he realized that in 
order to do that, he would have to pay his debt back to society, he said.

He stepped into an uncomfortable situation as he entered the rigorous 
Mercer County drug court program; a program that usually takes 
participants about five years to complete and involves countless 
hours of fighting through addiction and preparing to re-enter society 
with jobs and the ability to support sober lives.

Yesterday, Miller, along with 28 other graduates, celebrated the 
completion of this program. He is sober, he just graduated from a 
trade school, and he has a job. Graduate after graduate thanked the 
drug court team that got them through, and embraced Superior Court 
Judge Gerald Council, who oversaw everything.

Drug court came to Mercer County in 1999 as an alternative to prison 
for nonviolent drug offenders. For 14 years, people with drug and 
alcohol addictions who have qualified for the program have been given 
the chance to not only avoid prison time, but also to rebuild their 
lives through a very effective rehabilitation program, Council said.

"Almost every family has been affected one way or another through 
drug abuse or alcohol abuse," Council said.

Without treatment people with drug addictions who serve time in 
prison will very likely return to crime when they are released, Council said.

Drug court attempts to face this problem head-on with a holistic 
approach. In addition to their addictions, a lot of these 
participants haven't graduated high school or don't have a driver's 
license or have never held a job. This program aggressively addresses 
these issues and stresses the need for participants to prepare 
themselves to be productive in society, Council said.

In order to work through the variety and depth of problems that drug 
offenders face, the program is based on a collaborative process that 
brings together the regular courtroom participants - the judge, 
prosecutor, and defense attorney - with other key team members 
including probation officers, substance abuse evaluators and 
treatment professionals.

This team meets every week to evaluate a slate of participants that 
they will see in court that week, then while court is in session they 
all give input on what should happen next as participants explain how 
they have progressed or regressed. It's not just the incorporation of 
this team, however, that sets drug court apart from typical criminal 
proceedings.

County Assignment Judge Mary Jacobson spoke at the graduation of how 
the judicial thought that goes into drug court is different from 
anything else that goes on in the courthouse.

"Instead of quoting statutes," Jacobson said. "I've heard Judge 
Council quoting his grandmother."

She quipped that she in turn would occasionally hear the participants 
quote Council's grandmother back to him. It is not just that drug 
court is less conventional that makes it stand out, she said, but 
that it is a much more positive environment.

"I saw the best side of human nature in drug court," Jacobson said.

Thomas Harris, who was arrested on Thanksgiving weekend 2007, might 
embody what Jacobson was saying.

Harris chose to enter drug court instead of going to prison and he 
stressed the differences between the two as he advocated for others 
to decide to pursue life from a new perspective just as he did.

Instead of pitting himself against the system, Harris said that he 
prayed for help before he began the program.

"I've never seen them as judges or probation officers, they've always 
been the help that God sent me," Harris said.

The graduation was keynoted by Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman 
(D-Ewing), who has sponsored drug court legislation in the past. She 
said that she would use this graduation ceremony when she returns to 
the Statehouse to stress the importance of continuing to build on this program.

"I will use you as 29 examples right here in Mercer County when we go 
down to the Statehouse to fight to continue this program," Coleman said.

Coleman also stressed the importance of the graduates continuing to 
seize the opportunity they have been given, as it affects not just 
their lives, but those of people who have yet to enter the program.

"We know the incarceration of people in similar situations does 
nothing to make our society better," Coleman said. "Be our example of 
what a new society should be."
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