DRUG COURT GIVES FAMILIES SECOND CHANCES

Alicia Barnes of Salem is a participant in the Marion County adult drug
court, which helped her regain custody of her daughter, Sierra, 3.

The program extends its reach to help area families in jeopardy.

Alicia Barnes had a rough start in life. Then she made bad choices of her own.

It wasn't until drug court found her that she was able to turn her life
around and make a good home for her daughter, Sierra, now 3.

Soon, more parents like Barnes will get that same chance.

Marion County Circuit Court, along with the Department of Human Services,
is planning a new neighborhood-based, child-centered drug court.

It will serve parents who face no criminal charges, but whose children are
in state custody because of drug-related neglect or abuse. It will be an
extension of two existing drug courts for adults charged with crimes and
youths with drug problems who have been referred to the juvenile department.

"Our goal is truly to get families connected with some things that are
going to aid them long-term," said Judge Pamela Abernethy, who will handle
cases in the family drug court program. "I also see it as a blueprint for
improving things in the entire caseload."

Marion County's adult drug court helped Barnes with its structure and
intensity.

Barnes, 23, grew up as the daughter of an alcoholic mother and a
drug-addicted father. She was in and out of foster care from the time she
was 6 years old until she reached 18. She started smoking pot at 15. By 21,
methamphetamine was her drug of choice.

She was busted at her Salem duplex in October 2002, when a probation
officer arrived unexpectedly to check up on Barnes' boyfriend. Sierra was
taken into state custody and put into foster care. Barnes saw the cycle of
her own childhood repeating itself.

Sierra came home last February. Barnes regained legal guardianship and
finished drug court and treatment last month. She has aspirations for being
a great mother and someday a human-services worker helping others.

"It's given us a whole new life," Barnes said. "I learned a new way to
survive and it gave me a whole new focus in my life."

Today, there are about 900 children in foster care compared to 750 about 18
months ago. About 80 to 85 percent of the cases involved parents with drug
or alcohol problems and most of those are methamphetamine.

The Family Dependency Drug Treatment Court will use teams of drug
counselors, judges, attorneys and DHS caseworkers to help drug-addicted
parents whose children are wards of the state.

It will join a few others in Oregon, including family drug courts in
Clackamas and Benton counties.

The program already has faced a temporarily setback, but nothing that will
stop its launch later this summer, organizers said.

Due to start Wednesday, its launch date was pushed back at the last minute
last week when a closer look at a grant application revealed a problem. The
$450,000 three-year federal grant, which the county failed to get last
year, will only fund programs begun after June 30.

Organizers had planned to start with existing staff to work cases and funds
that they scraped together to offer incentives for parents to share with
their kids. Their decision to delay the start until July, would enable more
people to participate. Without the grant, the program will start, but on a
smaller scale.

Of particular concern is that without a grant they will have to exclude
clients who do not have private insurance if the Measure 30 tax measure
fails today and leads to Oregon Health Plan cuts.

"It was the right decision, but a very difficult decision," said Mike
Maryanov, drug court coordinator for the planned and juvenile programs.

Initial plans called for five families, but they hope to build that to 50
families over time.

Most family drug court clients will have very young children because
research shows that the child's brain still is forming and that they can be
helped the most, Abernethy said. Clients also will be chosen from those
most motivated to change because they are more likely to cooperate.

Organizers want to reunite families and get parents into recovery,
Abernethy said. By providing strong school connections and linking families
to neighborhood resources, they hope to strengthen healthy support systems
to help their clients succeed.

"Bottom line, it's all about the child," Abernethy said. "If we can prevent
one child from ending up with lifelong problems from abuse and neglect in
his or her early years, that's a great, great thing."

About half the clients will come from the Grant/Highland neighborhood,
which already has strong resources. This program will build upon those
resources to link clients with services available there and make them feel
a part of the larger community.

"It really takes a community to support the families who are in recovery,"
said Jason Walling, child welfare program manager for the Department of
Human Services. "I think it's an ideal approach."

Methamphetamine use has skyrocketed in Marion County during the past
several years. It is one of three counties in Oregon designated by the
federal government as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The number of
meth labs busted by the county's former drug team nearly doubled between
2001 and 2002, to 51.

"It's driving the criminal courts. It's driving the juvenile dependency
courts. It's driving the juvenile delinquency courts," said Judge Dennis
Graves, who leads the adult drug court. "It's just a huge epidemic and a
scourge on our society."

Meth is incredibly addictive, parents stop focusing on anything but their
addiction, and the cases as a result are more difficult to handle, Walling
said.

Drug courts are chipping away at the meth problem, Maryanov said.

Advocates point to the successes of the county's drug courts. Since
starting in June 2001, the juvenile drug court has had six successful
graduates. About 14 teens have started, but dropped out. Another 22 are
still in the program. Of the 20 who either have graduated or failed to
complete the program, two have reoffended.

The adult program has graduated 25 people since it began in 2001, 12 were
expelled and 29 still are enrolled. Only one graduate has had a criminal
charge since and it was not drug-related, Graves said.

Clackamas County's drug court program started in September 2002. Judge
Deanne Darling will graduate her first two families this month and her next
two next month, affecting a total of 14 kids. The integrated approach
between the courts and social services is working, she said.

"Society is asking the courts to solve social problems," Darling said.
"This is the only effective way to use the court system to do it."

Candice Greiner, 26, is in Marion County's adult drug court program.

She started using meth as a teenager. She began using it daily during her
divorce in 1999 and continued until she was caught more than three years
later. She neglected her daughter Angel, now 9, and a gave birth to a
meth-addicted son, Christopher, last February.

Greiner now has been clean for eight months and continues in the drug court
program. She is living in a safe, drug-free house. Her kids will begin
living with her soon.

"My son will actually get a chance to know me for me," Greiner said. "He
doesn't ever have to know me in my addiction."

Cara Roberts Murez (mailto:carar@statesmanjournal.com) can be reached at
(503) 399-6750.

About the program

Clients accepted into Marion County Circuit Court's planned family drug
treatment program will find themselves with a lot of work.

The Family Dependency Drug Treatment Court will be run similarly to the
circuit court's adult and juvenile drug court programs, with staff from a
variety of venues working together to break the cycle of drug use and abuse.

To get into the new program, clients will have to have a problem with drugs
to the extent that their children have been taken by the Department of
Human Services and made wards of the court.

Once chosen, they will begin a intense, time-consuming program.

They will start with almost daily appointments, including meetings with
appearances before a judge, regular meetings with their DHS casework, about
three drug treatment meetings weekly and another three Alcoholics Anonymous
or Narcotics Anonymous meetings. They will get skill-building classes, job
training, parenting classes and work with officials to find better housing.

As they progress, they will have fewer meetings and requirements.

These cases will be monitored longer than in other drug courts, until about
six months after graduation.