A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

Drug Courts Offer Addicts a Hard but Hopeful Way Out

Yolanda Knox was 15 when she tried marijuana. Ten years later, she
discovered crack cocaine.

Her addictions led to a life of stealing and drug dealing -- and a
stretch in state prison.

"The money was good," the 41-year-old Kingston woman said recently,
"but I was my own best customer. There weren't too many days I
wasn't high or committing crimes."

Two years ago, Knox was caught forging her sister's name on a
fingerprint card after she was arrested for drug possession. The
charge was her second felony -- an almost certain ticket back to
prison for a woman who had four grandchildren.

Then Kingston City Court Judge Edward T. Feeney intervened. With an
OK from Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams, the judge
invited Knox to enroll in Ulster County Drug Treatment Court.

"I'd heard people say Judge Feeney was willing to give anyone a
chance if you promised you'd give yourself a chance," Knox said. "And he did."

Instead of going to prison, Knox agreed to adhere to a set of rules
to get clean and sober. Those rules included entering a drug
treatment program, finding and holding on to an honest job and
finding a place to live away from her friends and associates in the
Kingston drug world.

The rules also included showing up regularly in Feeney's courtroom
to report on her progress.

Knox credits Feeney and the rest of the Ulster County Drug Treatment
Court team -- prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers and
coordinator Melissa Ortquist -- with helping her kick a habit that
had plagued her for more than 20 years. She said her own family
played a key role too.

"My daughter told me, 'Ma, you're all I have and all my own daughter
has,' " she said. "I promised her I'd make drug court work. That was
April 28, 2005, and the next day I stopped using drugs for good."

Two months ago, Knox "graduated" from drug court. One benefit: the
felony charge against her was expunged. Knox said the program,
launched in New York state seven years ago, had also saved her life.

"No doubt, without it, I'd be dead right now," she said.

Knox is not alone. Since 1999, nearly 13,000 addicts -- including
117 from Dutchess and Ulster counties -- have completed drug
treatment court. Experts say for those who are honestly ready to
fight their addictions, drug courts might be the best shot.

"It's the best available program for people who are truly seeking to
recover," said John Clarke, a Dutchess County assistant public
defender who represented clients in Beacon drug court for two years.

State and national studies on drug courts' effectiveness appear to
confirm Clarke's assessment. The New York Center for Court
Innovation found those who attended drug courts were 29 percent less
likely to commit new crimes. For those who graduated from
drug court, the figure was 70 percent.

A nationwide study last year by the Government Accountability Office
confirmed those numbers, according to Frank Jordan, executive
assistant to state Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Judy Kluger.

Judge: This isn't Burger King

A local judge who has run a drug court for the past 3 1/2 years said
he wasn't surprised.

"I tell everybody in drug court, 'This isn't Burger King: You don't
get it your way,' " Beacon City Court Judge Timothy Pagones said.
"It's not the easy way, but it's the best way."

What sets drug court apart from traditional criminal proceedings,
Pagones said, is the informal atmosphere in the courtroom that
enables him and other members of the team to really learn about
their clients' lives.

"You get to know them -- and their families -- in ways you never do
in other courts," he said.

Often, he said, getting the families involved can make all the difference.

"One time, a woman told me she was all done with drug court -- she
wanted to quit," Pagones said. "But her daughter was with her that
day, and she stood up and said, 'You know what, Mom? If you quit,
you'll never see your grandchildren again.'

"The woman stayed in the program, and she graduated," the judge
said. "That incident told me what drug court was all about."

Pagones said he often sees drug court graduates -- and some drug
court dropouts -- in the community, and he greets them as old friends.

"I might be filling my car with gas at the Mobil station on Main
Street and I'll have a guy come up to me and say, 'Remember me?' I
say, 'Yeah, if I took you down to court right now for a drug test,
how would you do?' and they laugh.

"Many of them thank me for saving their lives, and it doesn't get
much better than that," Pagones said. "Even for those who fail drug
court, we like to think we've given them some tools so when they're
ready to try again, they have a better chance of making it."

No cakewalk, this

If there is general agreement drug court is effective, almost
everyone also agrees it's rarely an easy way out for addicts.
Poughkeepsie resident Strates Demakos said graduating from
Poughkeepsie Drug Treatment Court was the best -- and possibly the
most difficult -- thing he'd ever done.

"I started smoking marijuana at 14, and I was hanging out in bars by
the time I was 16," said Demakos, 44. "It wasn't much longer before
I found cocaine, and by the time I started using intravenously, it
was all downhill from there."

Demakos said he held down a series of good-paying jobs during his
addiction, "but it was never enough," so he sold cocaine to
subsidize his habit. He said he had tried to quit on numerous
occasions over the past 10 years but never found a program that
worked -- until drug court.

"My lawyer urged me to try it, and honestly, I think God
intervened," Demakos said. "What struck me about drug court was
everybody was honest with you from the start, and if you screwed up,
there were immediate consequences."

Those consequences range from more frequent drug testing or writing
an essay to a week, or even a month, in jail. Demakos said he
flunked a urine test "almost immediately" after enrolling in drug court.

"The judge locked me up for a week and sent me to a 28-day program,"
he said. "From that point on, I was back on track. You can't play
games with drug addicts -- they're the best game-players in the world."

Today, Demakos runs his own recovery program at a local church and
is a guest speaker for the Poughkeepsie drug court team when they
visit juvenile detention centers and local schools and colleges.

"I'll do anything I can to help these people," he said. "Their
sincerity level is way up there."

Demakos said he often recalled what his lawyer told him -- drug
court only works for those truly committed to quitting. Other local
attorneys said they often wrestle with the question: Is drug court
right for my client?

"There are inherent conflicts of interest being a defense attorney
in drug court," Hopewell Junction lawyer Kevin MacKay said.

Because defense attorneys become part of the drug treatment court
team, they must work in concert with prosecutors, parole officers --
and the judge -- to keep the addict in line.

"You're put in the position of drug-testing your own client," he said.

MacKay said he also wondered how impartial a judge can be after he
sanctions a client in drug court, then kicks him out of the program
and faces him again in criminal court.

Attorney has reservations

Poughkeepsie attorney D. James O'Neil said he, too, had some
reservations about drug court.

"It's a good program, but it puts you in some difficult positions as
a lawyer," O'Neil said.

He said there are times when he can envision plea bargaining a case
in criminal court that will enable his client to avoid jail time.

"If you agree to let that same guy go to drug court, maybe he kicks
his addiction -- or maybe he fails and ends up going to jail," O'Neil said.

He said he always makes it a point to explain to his clients "all
the worst-case scenarios" of enrolling in drug court before they
make any decisions.

"I tell them, 'If there's any question in your mind about following
the rules, there's a good chance this is going to end badly,' "
O'Neil said. "I don't think you're doing your job as an attorney if
you don't explain to every client the reasons why they should avoid
the program."

Senior Assistant District Attorney Cindy Murphy, a member of the
Poughkeepsie drug court team, said she understood O'Neil's point.

"It's definitely a stretch for defense attorneys -- and for
prosecutors -- to switch gears when you go into drug court," Murphy
said. "Prosecutors are geared to punish people and here we are
trying to work with them and help them. Defense attorneys are geared
to getting the best deal for their clients, and in the short term,
maybe a short jail term is easier and faster. But if we can fix the
addiction, we should fix it."

"This is definitely a 'tough love' program," she said. "It's
anything but an easy way out."

Knox said she was grateful to everyone in drug court who had helped
her fix her addiction, and she said she hoped to be able to return
the favor for others. She plans to go back to school and become a
drug counselor for adolescents.

"There's kids right this minute picking up a drug for the first
time,' she said. "They don't know what they're getting into."