GRADUATES THANKFUL FOR DRUG COURT

The graduation included schoolgirls in frilly dresses clapping for their
mamas, and moms with wide smiles cheering for their sons. It included women
standing up to salute their husbands, and men showing off the diplomas of
their wives. And hugs, lots of hugs.

Last Thursday night's ceremony at Sojourner Truth Community Center marked
not only a rite of passage for 117 graduates of Orleans Parish Criminal
District Court's Drug Treatment Court, it honored 117 lives regained.

The yearlong program offers intensive probation instead of jail time to
offenders who commit nonviolent crimes due to substance abuse addiction. "A
lot of naysayers think judges shouldn't be doing this. They think we should
be putting these people in jail," Criminal District Court Judge Leon
Cannizzaro said. "But these ladies and gentlemen show that we didn't make a
mistake when we gave them a second chance."

Progress made

I learned about the program from Judge Calvin Johnson, one of seven
Criminal District Court judges who hold weekly drug court sessions.

In addition to meeting with a judge and case manager, a client must take a
weekly drug test, meet educational and employment requirements and perform
community service.

"This is a successful thing we're doing, and I'm really proud of it,"
Johnson said.

He invited me to the graduation to see for myself.

That's where I met Elaine Patterson, whose grandson and three sons are
leading productive lives after graduating from Johnson's drug court.

"Thank God for the drug court program," she said. "Look how good these
people are. Look how far they've come."

Her son Christopher, 31, recently was named volunteer of the year at George
Washington Carver Middle School. "I go talk to the kids so they'll avoid
what I went through," he said. "Since I've been there, I've changed a lot
of them."

'A person to behold'

I looked at how far Deidre Taylor, 34, had come. Her hair was done up in
braids tied back with a festive gold ribbon, and her husband and daughters
sat beside her, beaming with pride.

"I'm not just drug-free, I've been delivered," she said.

She had been on drugs and in and out of jail for more than 14 years when
she found the Deeper Life House of David health center and ministry.

"It's right down from the courthouse," she said. "All the time I was going
right by it in the back of a police car, and I never noticed it was there."

Now, she works as a custodian at Naval Support Activity in Algiers, and she
recently got her two daughters back from family members who had been
raising them. "I'm so grateful for drug court," she said. "God and Judge
Johnson saw fit to give me another chance."

But Johnson credits her strength and courage.

"She is a person to behold, and you can multiply her success by all these
others," he said. "This is a phenomenal thing to see."