PARISH LAUNCHES DRUG COURT

Nonviolent Addicts To Get 2nd Chance

Facing a stiff prison sentence for a heroin arrest, Melonie Cook, 18, of
Meraux has gotten a second chance: to avoid jail and to kick her addiction.

With the encouragement of her grandmother, Darlene Cook, who has raised her
since she was a baby, the teenager on Thursday became the first person to
enter St. Bernard Parish's new drug court program, pleading guilty to heroin
distribution and possession.

The idea behind the program, financed by the state Supreme Court, is to give
addicted criminals who don't have a history of violence a chance for
treatment and close supervision rather than send them to prison.

But state District Judge Wayne Cresap, who could be supervising as many as
30 adults this year under the drug court system, told Cook that he won't
have any qualms about sending her to prison if she doesn't follow the stiff
guidelines that include frequent drug tests, counseling sessions and meeting
regularly with the judge. The program lasts a minimum of one year and could
take as long as 18 months.

"Today, we break new ground in St. Bernard Parish," Cresap said. "We're
trying to keep people out of jail and (help them) become productive
citizens."

Cook, who faced up to 50 years in prison, was given a suspended five-year
term by Cresap and told she could spend the entire five years in prison if
she violates the terms of the drug court program.

Cook said after pleading guilty that the drug program "is going to give me
an opportunity to better myself and clear my record so that people won't
look at me differently the rest of my life.

"What's five years in prison going to do for me? I'd get out and be worse
off," Cook said.

"This (getting a chance to rehabilitate) helps me realize how serious it was
what I was doing."

Cook, who never completed high school, said she hopes to go back to school.

Her grandmother said, "I hope this will be the foundation to start a new
life for her. She is an intelligent young person who lost her way through
bad choices but can benefit from this change."

Such drug courts, which operate under the theory that addicts can't be cured
in jail, emerged in the 1980s and '90s as an attempt to reduce crime by
treating a criminal's addiction. They have been catching on across the
nation and in Louisiana.

About 1,700 people are now in a drug court program in New Orleans and more
than 30 parishes are participating in such courts.

In St. Bernard Parish, a juvenile drug court could also be set up in about
six months, officials said.

Parish judges and other officials in law enforcement have generally
supported the new program, although Cresap and others have said it isn't for
everyone. They say it would be a waste of money to fill a slot in the
program with someone who doesn't have the resolve to stick to the
guidelines.

"Some people would enter the program just to avoid jail and they won't make
it," Cresap said. They would ultimately violate the guidelines and end up in
jail anyway, he said.

The district attorney's office, as well as Cresap and counselors, will
decide who is eligible for the drug court program.

Sal Cusimano is serving as indigent defense attorney for the program.

Drug court is a behavior modification program, said Craig Taffaro, who is
treatment director for the program.

"It's designed to give an individual a chance to change his or her life,"
said Taffaro, a former member of the St. Bernard Parish Council. "Their
motivation (for going into the program) has to be rehabilitation."