Charlene’s children know she’s coming home every night.
That wasn’t always the case during her 13-year addiction to heroin and cocaine.
“Sometimes I put them to bed and would tell them I have to leave, but said I will come back. They would ask me, ‘Mommy, are you really coming back?” Charlene told a crowd gathered to watch the graduates in the Central Jury Room at the Bexar County Courthouse.
“Days and weeks would pass before I would come back. It was about getting the next fix,” she added.
Not anymore.
A little more than a week ago, Charlene formally graduated from Bexar County Adult Drug Court. (The San Antonio Current agreed to quote drug court graduates by first name only due to privacy concerns).
Charlene and 17 other drug and DWI court grads from this year’s class aren’t the norm. Few offenders enter the program and even fewer graduate.
But those who do make it attest to its life-changing impact.
“I had forgotten how to function in life without drugs,” said Charlene, who was addicted to heroin and cocaine.
In fall of 2012, police arrested her while she was picking up drugs.
A court-appointed lawyer told her she was facing jail time and that Child Protective Services was going to take her children.
The lawyer told Charlene that she needed to think about her children and herself. He also told her about drug court.
“The remainder of my time in jail I thought about it. When I got out, things changed,” Charlene said. “I didn’t want to go back to jail so I agreed to do drug court.”
Once in, she wasn’t so sure about the rigorous, tedious and intense program.
“I regretted it and thought I should have done time,” Charlene said. “That was my addicted brain — fake it till you make it.”
A Better Way
Drug courts emphasize specialized treatment and supervision for non-violent offenders over the more traditional, punitive disciplinary approach.
There are over 2,500 drug courts in the country. Bexar County established its first one in 2001, the same year the Texas Legislature mandated that counties of over 550,000 people offer them to convicted offenders.
Bexar County now has eight specialized drug and DWI courts.
Although figures on benefits range widely, drug court advocates and criminal justice experts tout graduates’ low recidivism rates and taxpayer savings.
Setting up the courts is an expensive endeavor, but the annual cost — about $600,000 — runs about the same as what Bexar County spends on other criminal courts.
But drug and DWI courts are set up on differently from traditional criminal justice models — drawing flack from “tough-on-crime” hardliners.
Some researchers say they do work.
William Kelly, a criminal justice professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said writing drug courts off as too expensive or too light-handed is a shortsighted error by policymakers.
“There’s still the perception that treatment is more expensive than locking them up and nothing could be further from the truth,” Kelly told the Current.
Reaching More People
Judge John Fleming, who runs the Adult Drug Court, said that one of the court’s issues was “reaching enough people.” Fleming’s court has had about 43 participants per year since 2010.
The DWI Court, run by Judge Celeste Brown, has had even fewer takers. About 17 people have entered that program each year since it was established in 2013.
Kelly said that with such low participation figures, drug courts are now more symbolic than substantive.
“Capacity is way below the need, locally and nationally. The current capacity of drug courts can serve about 5 to 10 percent of the actual need of individuals in the justice system with substance abuse problems,” Kelly said.
Brown said she’s aggressively marketing her court to net more candidates. But she’s sometimes stymied by a key group of players whose position she knows well: defense attorneys.
Some defense lawyers hesitate to steer their clients toward drug courts because the process is long and arduous. And a relapse can carry stiff penalties.
Participants must report to their probation officer, submit daily urine exams and attend support group meetings several times a week. They also must meet with a judge several times a month. And there’s little room for failure — a slip-up can mean jail time.
Since 2010, less than half of the participants who started Bexar County’s DWI and Adult Drug Court programs graduated.
Pearl, who completed the DWI program, said it was so hard that she wanted to give up.
“I even asked to do time (instead). The judge said no,” Pearl recalled.
Brown, who was a defense attorney for 20 years before becoming a judge, said she turned up her nose at drug courts as a lawyer.
“Defense attorneys are trying to get their clients the best deal they can … because that’s what they’re paid to do,” Brown said. “In the short-term, going to jail for 30 days … is a better deal than being on probation for a year and having to go through the program.”
Not to mention that people who opt to sit behind bars are more likely to reoffend and will need a lawyer again. That can create a dangerous incentive for defense attorneys, said Rosie Gonzalez, a lawyer who volunteers for drug court duty.
“If you’re just interested in the money aspect of it, they’re going to be your clients forever, because they’re going to keep coming in with substance issues,” Gonzalez said.
Speaking From Experience
Brown said that she’s working with Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas “Nico” LaHood to develop additional incentives to encourage greater participation.
That’s still in the works, but they could include perks such as throwing out other pending charges upon completion of the program.
Lahood himself may be the courts’ best asset for growth.
Let’s just say this issue hits close to home with him.
He was arrested for selling hundreds of ecstasy pills in 1994. He was sentenced to community service and a $1,000 fine.
Lahood is a staunch supporter of drug courts. He received special training in drug court administration before becoming DA.
“That’s a fundamental advantage to have the DA on board. Somebody like a DA could be a strong advocate to expanding capacity,” noted Kelly, the UT professor. “It takes somebody in the trenches who is high-profile who can say unequivocally ‘This works.'”
LaHood told the Current that “the drug court model needs to be the new standard” for dealing with non-violent offenders.
“Not only is it fiscally responsible to do that, but I think it’s morally responsible, because you get people back on track. It makes a difference not only in their lives, but their children and their children’s children,” Lahood said.
For recovering drug addicts like Charlene and Pearl, the road less traveled has made all the difference as they start a new — sober — life.
“There are better things to do than drink,” Pearl said. “I have more choices now. There are no more hangovers … and no more handcuffs.”
This article appears in Doseum.
