 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Graduates celebrate clean, sober beginnings
By CARRIE JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer INVERNESS -- A $20 lump of crack started 36-year-old Sheri Wright down the path toward recovery. Arrested with the drugs in 1999, it was just the latest in a string of felony arrests for Wright, who had been addicted to cocaine for a decade. But this arrest would be different. Wright's lawyer recommended that she participate in a new program called Drug Court, an alternative to jail offered to nonviolent drug offenders. "I didn't want no part of it," recalled Wright, an Inverness resident and nurse's aide. "I was really being stubborn." But on Wednesday, Wright donned a purple satin robe and black mortarboard to join five other recovering substance abusers as the first graduates of Citrus County's Drug Court. "I feel really great," said Wright, clutching a vase filled with pale pink roses, given to her as a graduation present. "I've got my self-respect back." After a brief ceremony at the Historic Courthouse in Inverness, the graduates were awarded diplomas, tote bags and a red-ribboned scroll clearing them of all criminal charges. Wright said she started Drug Court to erase the arrest from her record but had gained much more by the end of the 18-month program. "I needed to get my life in order," she said. "Today, I'm happy." Citrus County launched its Drug Court program with eight people on June 14, 2000, said Ray Cox, the program's administrator. Two participants weren't ready to graduate and are repeating some of the treatment, he said. The program is rigorous. Participants attend two-hour group counseling sessions three times a week during the first two months. They must also submit to urine tests twice a week and take other random drug tests. They must appear in court every Wednesday, where case managers report their progress to a judge. If the participants test drug-free, they get an action plan, and the pace of urine tests and group counseling sessions gradually decreases as they progress through two 22-week stages. They must also attend counseling and pay $25 a week for the drug tests. After that, the participants have six months of voluntary counseling and drug screens. If they complete all the stages, the charges against them are dropped. And, if they're lucky, they'll have pulled back from the brink of poverty, disease and a life devoid of hope, said the Rev. Max Wilkins, pastor of First United Methodist Church and the ceremony's keynote speaker. Wilkins should know: He kicked an addiction to drugs and alcohol 20 years ago. "So I know what battles you fought to get to where you are now," he told the graduates. Wilkins, 41, said he started smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol in junior high school and gradually progressed to harder drugs, including speed and cocaine. He said Drug Court sends a powerful message that rehabilitation is possible for substance abusers. "Through this program, the state is saying that people who choose to get better can get better," Wilkins said. More than 500 court systems across the country have created drug courts since Miami-Dade invented it in 1989. For Circuit Judge Patricia Thomas, who championed the idea of starting a Drug Court in Citrus County, Wednesday's graduation ceremony represented a major step forward for the fledgling program. "I truly am so proud of them," she said. "I have seen so much growth in all of them." The court-ordered treatment sessions and drug tests are over, but the graduates aren't completely free of Drug Court. If they are to reoffend, that information will be added to national drug court statistics. And staying clean may be the most difficult part. "They're not under the thumb of the court system after today," Thomas said. "They have to live their lives on their own."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
Citrus Times |
