ROAD TO RECOVERY

Mentally Ill Get Medical, Legal Help In Hope To Turn Life Around

Stevan Fitzsimmons stood before the judge and described how Jefferson
County's nine-month-old Mental Health Court had improved his life.

Without it, he would be in prison.

Fitzsimmons abused alcohol and drugs. He stole to feed his habit. He
bounced from job to job. And last year he landed in jail his third time
after he tried to cash a stolen check.

He was going nowhere fast, until officials enrolled him in Mental Health
Court, an intensive program that offers medical and legal help sooner to
mentally ill people arrested for non-violent offenses. Prior to the
program, such defendants fell through the cracks, faced new arrests or
languished in jail awaiting court dates. The goal is to move defendants to
self-sufficiency.

"I want to stick with the winners. I ran with the losers all my life so
it's time for change," Fitzsimmons said recently. "I want to have a life a
life and a bank account and to find a wife someday."

He seems to be on his way.

He has a job, is taking medicine for depression, attends Alcoholics
Anonymous meetings regularly and is paying restitution.

The federally funded program works like this: Inmates with serious mental
illness are reviewed to determine whether they qualify for Mental Health
Court. Those who enter the court plead guilty to their nonviolent crimes,
receive probation and agree to various requirements such as unannounced
drug testing and securing housing. Mental Health Court is run with the help
of the UAB Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime.

Constant Contact:

Participants will be supervised six months or longer, depending on their
needs. Case managers maintain constant contact with defendants, including
driving them to doctors' appointments, drug treatment and mental health
centers, the grocery store, job training, and even showing them how to
catch the bus.

"We don't ask clients how they are doing," said one of three case managers,
Kady Abbott. "The first question always is, 'Have you taken your
medication?' If the answer is no, then nothing else can be addressed until
we find out what's going on with the client in not taking the medication."

On a recent court day, defendants appeared before Circuit Judge James Hard
to answer charges ranging from the theft of a $464 lawnmower to cocaine
possession.

Lawyer Hiram Dodd Jr. told Hard that his client, the one who pleaded guilty
to stealing the lawnmower, is taking his medication and is compliant with
the court.

"He looks better and is doing better than he has in a long time," Dodd said
of the man, who has schizophrenia. Hard placed the man on probation, but
not without a few words. "Stay on your medication and keep your
appointments for your doctor and stay out of trouble," he said.

Hard, who joined the program last July, will transfer his Mental Health
Court docket Thursday to Circuit Judge Virginia Vinson, who will handle six
new cases. Fitzsimmons, who has been in the program since last fall, will
be there. Abbott said he will be the first person to graduate from Mental
Health Court.

"He is an example of the legal system, the criminal justice system,
intensive case management and community resources all working together to
help those persons who have mental illness," Abbott said. "If all those
components weren't in place it couldn't happen."

The graduation news had yet to reach Fitzsimmons officially when a reporter
told him. "Really! Wow! I've accomplished something," he said. "In the last
so many years it's been kind of tough to accomplish such things as this. So
when it pertains to my sobriety, I'm happy."

Fitzsimmons was arrested in 2000 for writing bad checks to support a drug
habit. He said he didn't undergo drug treatment then, although his lawyer
at the time begged him. Rather, Fitzsimmons pleaded guilty to the crime,
received probation and thought he'd be OK as he tried self-rehabilitation.
It didn't work.

He was arrested again last year when he stole a check from his father and
tried to cash it.

"Sometimes you just have to get the right number and his number came up,"
said his lawyer, Virginia P. Meigs. "He finally realized that in his 30s
that he would have to go through behavior modification or he was going to
prison."

Twenty-one people are currently in mental health court, including 10 who
have pleaded guilty and are completing their probationary period, according
to organizers. Six additional defendants who did not qualify for the
program are receiving other services from case managers.

Jefferson County's Mental Health Court is the only one in Alabama, and
people are taking notice.

"We have parents from all over the state calling, ... and in some Southern
states, wanting to know, 'How does my kid, my husband or spouse get into
something like this?'" Abbott said.

While Mental Health Court has those defendants who succeed, it also has
those who fail. Since July, eight people have been terminated, including
one person whose case was dismissed. A defendant is terminated and
probation revoked because of repeated drug use, committing new crimes or
failure to comply with other aspects of the program.

"We've had growing pains but I think it's going to be a wonderful program,
and it's going to be with us, hopefully, for some time," said Suzanne Muir,
project manager for Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime.