San Bernardino County officials say group's criticism of Proposition 36 implementation is based on incomplete data. San Bernardino County officials this week defended the way they have handled a new state law steering some drug addicts to treatment instead of prison after an influential drug policy group said the county deserves a failing grade for its Proposition 36 plan. By 61% to 39% last November, California voters approved Proposition 36, which treats drug addiction as a sickness rather than a crime. It rewrote state law to steer certain nonviolent adult offenders who use or possess illegal drugs into treatment rather than jail or prison. The initiative officially went into effect Sunday. [continues 500 words]
Recovering Addicts, Alcoholics Celebrate Their Sobriety And Aren't Afraid To Reflect On The Tougher Times RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- They tearfully apologized to their families and friends, gratefully acknowledged the help of even the police officers who arrested them and laughed at the stumbles they made on the way to a drug-free life. Sixteen rehabilitated drug addicts and alcoholics graduated from Rancho Cucamonga drug court this week, celebrating many months of sobriety after years of addiction. Humor, drama and pride abounded as San Bernardino County Superior Court Commissioner Ronald Gilbert presided over a ceremony Thursday evening in the City Council chambers at Rancho Cucamonga City Hall. It was the local drug court's fourth graduation, bringing the total number of graduates to 49 since the treatment program began at the West Valley courthouse in 1998. [continues 480 words]
Drug Court Participants Encourage Others Through Their Own Success That They Can Reverse The Downward Spiral Of Abuse. Joey Diaz, 43, is a drug court client who is succeeding, despite more than 25 years in and out of prison struggling with heroin addiction. He expects to graduate from the yearlong program in February. "I lived for it," he said of heroin. "I woke up for it. All my crimes were committed for heroin." But he wasn't getting any better in prison and he knew it. [continues 460 words]
Lawyers And Counselors Work Together To Straighten Out The Lives Of Men And Women Hooked On Narcotics. RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- Terry Marble stood in drug court and choked back tears as he read homework he wrote for San Bernardino County Superior Court Commissioner Ronald Gilbert. It was a brief autobiography of his life as an addict. He first plunged into narcotics in 1968, "in the jungles of Vietnam," said Marble, 50, of Fontana. "I hid behind smoking every day," he said, referring to marijuana and other drugs. [continues 1118 words]
Drug courts are designed to remove addicts from the criminal justice system once and for all by guiding them into sobriety. Do they work. "I see a big difference" in many of the addicts who go through drug court, said Karen Mouawad, a probation officer for 11 years who is now assigned exclusively to the Rancho Cucamonga drug court. "We're not going to save everybody," she said. "Some can't shake it. Some don't want to yet." [continues 476 words]
*Upland Housing Authority Leader Pushes For Bill That Would Free Federal Funds For Prevention In Areas Without Problems. UPLAND -- When Xenia "Sam" Sabo took a job as a receptionist with the Upland Housing Authority right out of high school in 1973, the 100-unit public housing complex the authority ran was home to violence and fear. She eventually took over as executive director, and she and the authority transformed the complex without a penny of federal money earmarked for fighting crime in public housing. [continues 531 words]
