DRUG OFFENDERS GIVEN HOPE THROUGH DRUG COURT PROGRAM

Helfrich Cheers On His Softball Heroes

They may not be the best softball players in the league, but they've
got to be among the most unusual ever to take to the field at Tatum
Park.

Their No. 1 cheerleader is the top judge in Forrest and Perry
counties' 12th Judicial Circuit and their coach is also their
probation officer.

Some of the players on the opposing team were their
jailers.

When the 40-plus members of the Forrest-Perry Adult Drug Court arrived
on the field Thursday night along with family and supporters - their
last regular season game - they made enough noise for three teams. But
in their bright yellow T-shirts, with team name, Helfrich Heroes,
standing out in bold black letters, they were no different from other
teams in the Hattiesburg Parks and Recreation Department's Co-Ed League.

They were all looking for victory.

On the opening play against Jackson Bonding, whose team includes
several Forrest County Jail guards, the Heroes were first up to bat.

"Go, go, go," yelled Forrest-Perry Circuit Judge Bob Helfrich as
batter Jimmy Lowery, 27, of Hattiesburg dashed for home plate.

Lowery, with high-fives for the judge as he completed his run around
the bases, said without the program he would be in prison.

"It's a second chance and one no one else has given us," he
said.

Helfrich, wearing the same bright yellow T-shirt as his players,
prowled the sidelines, slapping backs and calling out encouragement.
When the team scored four runs off a single hit, the judge was
ecstatic, congratulating the team and their volunteer coach, Robert
Minor, also their probation officer.

"These are a good group of players," Minor said.

Later in the game, Helfrich commiserated when batter Shenet Brewer
struck out.

"Next time you'll get it, don't worry," Helfrich said as the dejected
batter walked off the field.

Brewer, 27, had spent six years on methamphetamine and dropped to 93
pounds before she was arrested and faced Helfrich.

"This saved my life," Brewer said, although it didn't do much for her
nose. During practice, she took a ball to the nose and when she was
not batting, she held an ice pack to her face.

Her teammates kidded her about how to catch a ball, but all cheered
when she went to the plate to bat.

The fledgling drug program in Helfrich's 12th Circuit District is one
of 11 courts statewide. Five more are in the planning stages.

Helfrich's court started six months ago with a three-year $459,000
grant from the Hattiesburg-based Asbury Foundation and now has 44
participants. He can take up to 80, but does not want to turn anyone
away.

A permanent funding source is needed and the state may get one if Gov.
Haley Barbour signs legislation passed last week that would fund drug
courts through a series of fees.

The legislation calls for a $10 special assessment for drug court
operations from fines for felony crimes, traffic offenses, driving
under the influence of alcohol, game and fish law violations and
litter law violations, and an $8 special assessment for other
misdemeanors.

"Drug courts are the best thing we have going," he said. "We spend
$20,000 a year to send a person to prison and when they get out you
have a better criminal."

It is the hardest program offered through the courts to
complete.

Participates have to call program coordinator Lucy Davenport daily,
attend support meetings daily, get drug tested twice weekly and work
or be actively looking for work or in school. And that's just for
starters. Some spend months in rehabilitation facility. Others are
outpatients.

Davenport's six months on the job has convinced her of the value of
the program and its people.

"They are wonderful," she said. "I don't know how else to describe
them although sometimes I feel like I got more than 40 kids."

One of her "kids" just got home from a four-month stay in a drug
rehabilitation facility.

Amanda Wood, 23, of Petal, failed a drug test in the first month of
the program.

Instead of jail, Helfrich sent her to an in-house treatment facility
for four months.

She was at the game last week, cheering the team on.

"I learned a lot at the center about myself," Wood said. "It was
great. I love the judge. We all do. He's a good man and he looks for
the good in us. He's giving us a second chance.

"I am a good person. Drugs don't make you a bad person," she said.
"They make you a sick person."

Helfrich said employers who do offer jobs to his drug court
participants have a direct line to him if there are problems
encountered in the workplace.

"I just wish people would give us a chance and let us prove
ourselves," he said. "We can provide clean and sober workers."

Besides, Helfrich reasoned, if you hire one of the participants and
there's a problem, he's available.

"They can call me if one of mine has a problem at work because I can
straighten it out," Helfrich said. "I've got the hammer."

Helfrich said 14 of his participants are now registered to take the
GED high school equivalency exam.

"For the most part, these people never had a chance," he said. "This
is a program that gives them a chance."

The idea of the baseball team was to create a support group for the
drug court participants and William Robinson, 31, of Hattiesburg, said
it's working.

"I know I got 40 people who care that I make it," he
said.

The team's name, Helfrich Heroes, was the judge's choice.

"What they have to do to get here and stay here is tough," he said.
"As long as they stay in recovery, they are my heroes."

But Helfrich's second chances are not limitless.

Of the 45 drug abusers sentenced to drug court, only one has
failed.

"He's serving a nine-year sentence," Helfrich said.

It's not just the drug court participants who benefit from the
program.

Brenda Evens of Petal cheered as her son, Mitch Evans, 46, was at
bat.

"For Mitch this is a new life," she said. "For his family it is an
answer to many prayers."

Brenda Evans has not missed a game and nor has other family members
during this season.

"We want him to know we are behind him 100 percent," Brenda Evans
said.

She said her son's problem with illegal drugs really got bad about
four years ago.

"He just got in with the wrong crowd," she said. "Now he's in with the
right group and they've become his family. What is so great about this
program is Judge Helfrich. He has been wonderful."

The team won Thursday night sliding them into the plus category with a
6-5 record for the regular season.

But that does not bother their coach.

"Just wait to the playoffs," Minor said.

When he's not coaching the players, he's making sure they follow the
terms of their probation.

Coaching is neither part of Minor's job description, nor is Lucy
Davenport's appearance at the games.

But if Helfrich Heroes are playing you will find them there right behind the
team's namesake.