DRUG COURTS SHORT ON FUNDS DESPITE SUCCESS

NASHVILLE - One by one, they walked into the judge's office and said nearly the same thing about their addiction and the Davidson County Drug Court.

"If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, this is the place," said Beth Bryant, a makeup artist who had been hooked on heroin.

Bryant is one of the 120 people in Judge Seth Norman's drug court program, one of only 12 such programs in Tennessee.

Drug courts around the country have largely been a success, and a recent state comptroller's report said more are needed because nonviolent drug and alcohol cases account for the majority of Tennessee's crimes.

Despite their success, drug courts get very little state support, and only recently started receiving court costs in drug cases.  They rely mainly on federal grants.

"It's a constant funding game, trying to find the money to keep the program going," Norman said.

The Davidson County Drug Court in Nashville needed help to keep its doors open after several of its federal grants expired.  The General Assembly rescued the court with $650,000 at the end of the session this year.

"The state pulled through so we can keep our doors open," coordinator Jeri Bills said.

Drug courts work, Norman said, because they offer treatment and help to people like Patrick Foster, a 45-year-old who had been in jail at least 27 times.  Or Mike Hodges, a 38-year-old who was the driver during a home invasion.

Both were addicted to crack cocaine, and both said they could feed their habit in prison if they wanted to.

"If you wanted the drugs, they were there, and so it was really hard for me to stay away from them," Hodges said.

Norman said about 95 percent of his former addicts were hooked on crack cocaine.  But he's helped them break their habits and has had about 300 graduates since he began the drug court in 1997.

"I just got tired of seeing the same people come through the door time and time again," he said.  "All of them were addicts, and I would send them to jail or to prison and they'd serve their sentence and be back out using."

Everyone in the drug court must live at the facility for a year and continue outpatient care.

"The normal stay is a year here and another six to eight months in either outpatient or in a halfway house," he said.  "We found that it takes at least six months to get their heads clear before they begin to understand they can, in fact, suppress their addictions and live a life without drugs."

Judge Don Ash runs a smaller drug court in Rutherford County.  His program has had 50 graduates over four years.

"We try to restructure these people's lives," he said.  "We move them out of their neighborhoods, away from bad friends.  We help them with their educations and jobs."

Neither Ash nor Norman has seen cases of methamphetamine addicts yet, but they say the drug court can handle those problems as well.

"Everything I read about crystal meth is it's extremely hazardous to your health," Norman said.  "They said you couldn't treat people who are addicted to crack cocaine.  I think you've got to look at the same thing we had to look at.  It's going to be a long-term program."

Norman said his program isn't without failures - about 30 percent of convicts go back to jail for failing to obey the strict rules.  After graduation, about 16 percent return to jail for drug offenses.  But that's well below the national average of 67 percent for people who don't go to drug court.

"I've had three violent felonies committed by people who have graduated from the drug court," he said.  "None of them involved death - one of them was a rape; two were for aggravated assault."

Last year, the Legislature approved the first set of guidelines for the state's drug courts.

"The great thing about the legislation is that it puts us on the forefront of what's going on in the entire country," Ash said.

Norman said it brings the public's attention to the problem, which will also eventually help the court's funding.

"There's no way to stop drugs at the borders.  It just can't be done," he said.  "What you've got to do is cut off the demand."

Stopping the demand is exactly what the program's participants want.

"I hope I never get over the fear of a relapse," Bryant said.  "That's always a possibility, and I don't ever fool myself and think it's not possible.  I've done that before."