Drug court celebrates four years of success

The 20th Judicial District Drug Court celebrated its fourth year of
providing drug offenders with an alternative to prison or regular
probation Friday morning.

It was standing room only in Courtroom A at the Faulkner County
Courthouse, with over 100 people gathered to hear the testimonies of
graduates or current participants in the drug court program. The
first to speak was Jason Pruitt, who said a 10-year addiction to
methamphetamine derailed his career before leading to his arrest in
Greenbrier.

"I was raised to know right from wrong in a good Christian home,"
Pruitt said to the packed courtroom, "I don't know where I got off
track."

The drug court's four-phase regimen of counseling, support group
meetings and random drug testing helped Pruitt get back on track, he
said. But like many in the program, Pruitt wasn't a model of
adherence to the requirements. Violations earned him a 365-day stay
in prison.

"That's what helps," Pruitt said of his year's imprisonment, which he
described as a time of reflection. When his time was served, he was
brought back into the program, and graduated successfully.

Mark Young, another drug court participant, said he hopes to graduate
from the program in a year. For a time, he said, he was "a poster
child of what not to do" in the drug court. Like Pruitt, his
violations of the court's regulations resulted in a year in prison.

Young said he was angry about being locked up, but over time realized
that his marijuana and alcohol abuse had been a prison of their own,
estranging him from his loved ones.

"I'd locked myself up from my family for years," he
said.

Young said his drug problems started in his first years of college,
when he found himself "away from my parents and people who knew my
parents. ... Always us drug addicts think that maybe we would have
quit before we got in trouble, but that never happens."

Through the drug court program, he said, "I gained a sense of
responsibility for my own actions, which I never had."

Patty Clements said she knew methamphetamine "was going to be the
death of me," before she was arrested in Vilonia.

"I got a second crack at life through drug court," she said, "and I'm
going to embrace it."

After graduating from the program, Clements regained custody of her
daughter.

Circuit Judge Charles "Ed" Clawson said he struggled with Jay Pierce,
another drug court participant who gave his testimony Friday.

"You know the old adage 'You can lead a horse to water but you can't
make him drink?,'" Clawson said. "Well, it's my experience that if
you tie him there long enough, he'll get thirsty."

Pierce said the first year of the program was "pretty bad," as he
rebelled against the drug court staff. Eventually, though, he said he
realized that the drug court staff weren't people trying to get him
in trouble, but rather "people going up to bat for me."

"It's really cool to see guys on the side of the law helping me," he
said. "It's like they took a program and tried to say, 'Look, there's
a lot of drug addicts out there. Instead of sticking them in prison
and doing away with them, let's try to help them out.'"

Another drug court participant, Skylar Carter expressed his
appreciation to the drug court staff by teaming with Young to write
and record a hip-hop song dealing with the experience of the
program's participants. Carter also presented Clawson with a plaque
on behalf of all the participants.

Carter said his drug of choice was cocaine, and his addiction led him
to rob convenience stores, motels and dope dealers.

"I got stopped on some road," he said. "I was putting up a fight and
I got maced, slammed, every other thing. It wasn't until I heard a
dog barking and they said they'd turn him loose if I didn't quit
resisting that I calmed myself down.

"And they say you can't make good decisions on drugs?," he
joked.

Even the birth of his son last year didn't shake his addiction, he
said.

"Like every other addict, I said when my son was born that I'd quit,"
he said. "I didn't."

Carter is still hoping to graduate from the program. He had a major
setback about a year and a half ago, just seven days before he would
have graduated. An old friend came to town, he said, and persuaded
him to do cocaine. The consequence: A year in prison.

Carter was released on July 12, he said, "and here I am, trying to
get it together again."

Conway Police Chief A. J. Gary and local attorney Frank Shaw
commented on the success of the program after the ceremony.

"This program helps people," Shaw said. "It reduces crime and it's
cheaper than incarceration. It just works; it's the best program we
have."

Gary pointed out that once a person has graduated, their record is
sealed and the offense that brought them into the program can't be
held against them when applying for a job.

"They can truthfully say that they've never been convicted of a
felony," he said.

To date, none of the program's 58 graduates have been charged with a
new felony and 96 percent have maintained gainful employment. The
program has a 82-percent graduation rate.

All participants who spoke said without the program they'd likely be
dead or in prison today.