DRUG COURT YIELDS NEW SET OF SUCCESSES

The 29 people at the front of the Fulton County Government Center
auditorium Friday gave themselves a second chance at life. They were young
and middle-aged, white and African-American, male and female.

To look at them, they seemed to have little in common, but each had
overcome addictions that cost them homes, families, jobs. Proud parents and
children, husbands and wives applauded each one as their names were
announced for completing a drug court program.

"Our use of drugs had brought us to a place where we were liabilities to
our families and friends," Andrew Bell told the assembly.

Free for 429 days of the drugs and alcohol he started using at age 15,
Bell, now a night manager at a fast-food restaurant, promised the gathering
that, "My only conviction from this day forth is to live clean."

Fulton and 22 other Georgia counties offer a drug court, but beyond their
names, no two are the same.

Fulton receives significant funding from tax dollars but requires $750 from
each participant. Others are not publicly funded and have steeper fees.
Cobb demands $2,400 over 18 months from participants, and Gwinnett expects
$165 a month for each of the 18-24 months spent in its program.

Fulton and DeKalb focus on nonviolent offenders with multiple felony drug
convictions. Cobb will only accept those charged for the first time with
felony drug possession, while Gwinnett will take those who have had one
prior felony conviction.

"There's . . . many different ways to do them," said Donna Dixon, director
of the Georgia Association of Drug Court Professionals. "[Counties] look at
what their needs are."

None, however, take violent offenders, and the directors of each say the
programs threaten consequences, including jail time, for anyone who doesn't
follow the rules.

According to the National Drug Court Institute, at the beginning of this
year there were more than 1,600 drug courts nationwide, half devoted to
adults and the rest focusing on juveniles or families or those only
addicted to alcohol. Statistics show that almost three-fourths of those who
go through drug court programs keep their addictions in check.

In 1997, Fulton was the second county in Georgia to develop a drug court;
the first was in Macon in Bibb County.

To date, about 300 have graduated from Fulton's program. Friday's was the
largest class to graduate.

Loved ones, dressed in their Sunday best for the ceremony, slipped down the
center aisle to quickly snap a photo when the name they had waited for was
called.

"It's a day I'll never forget," 82-year-old Evelyn Spivey said of her
56-year-old son Aaron, who was arrested five times for possession of heroin
before he asked to be admitted into the program.

"I was ready for this," said Aaron Spivey, who had failed a drug program
once before. "I came to realize life is OK without drugs."

Aaron Spivey, who now earns a living renovating homes, had been using
heroin for 35 years when he quit. On Friday, he had been clean for 442 days.

Participants are required to appear before a drug court judge and also have
to participate in 12-step programs or counseling. There are random and
frequent drug tests. Participants cannot graduate if they do not have
full-time jobs or school enrollment.

Fulton has 200 now enrolled in its program. DeKalb's 3-year-old program has
70, with three set to graduate Friday. Cobb's program, which started in
2003, has 117, three of whom were scheduled to graduate earlier this week.
Gwinnett started its drug court this year; the 29 enrolled there will not
finish until next June or July.

"Our program takes people with fairly extensive arrest histories," said
John Zoller, director of the Fulton County Adult Drug Court. "We're trying
to address the people who really have a problem."

For example: Jerome Trusty, known as Tony to his family. Trusty is bursting
with pride, eager to tell his story. He had been arrested 33 times, mostly
for stealing cars or small things like deodorant or toothpaste. His father
refused to let Trusty live with him because he had stolen from him so many
times. Trusty's aunt also wouldn't let him into her home because he stole
and because he often was filthy from living on the street.

"If we didn't hear from Tony, we would know where he was. He was in jail,"
said his aunt, Jacqueline Davis-Belt

The last time he was arrested, no one bailed him out, Trusty, 34, said.
"That time, everyone threw up their hands. I had been burning very good
bridges."

"I feel so great now," Davis-Belt said after the ceremony.

Trusty has a job, she said. "Now he has health insurance, vacations. He
went to the beach for the first time last week," Davis-Belt said.

Down said the graduates, collectively, had been arrested 253 times, but now
legally earn about $500,000 a year as a group.

Walter Smith, 45, said he had been arrested 30 to 40 times. He started with
small drug charges but soon began breaking into businesses to get stuff to
sell. "I've been doing time since the late '70s," Smith said.

His crack habit eventually cost him $500 to $600 a day, he said. He was
having no contact with his children, now adults, or his three
grandchildren. "I was using and using," Smith said. "I was hurting people."

But now, Smith said, "I'm a totally different person."