Series: Meth In The Mother Lode (Part 3c)

DRUG COURT A CHALLENGE THAT MANY TAKE

Robin Wellmaker came before Calaveras County Drug Court Judge Douglas
Mewhinney in late November after she went off the wagon and used meth.

Before that, she had been clean for 90 days.

"Do you want to remain in drug court?" Mewhinney asked the woman, who was
missing several of her teeth.

Wellmaker sobbed that she did and Mewhinney warned her that she had one
more chance to get her life together.

A month later, Wellmaker's drug tests were clean, and she showed Mewhinney
five job applications to prove that she was trying to get a job. Wellmaker
also told Mewhinney she had a dental appointment the following week to
start working on fixing her teeth.

"That was her downfall," said substance abuse counselor Deni Keiser.

At the dentist, Wellmaker received a bottle of pain-killing Vicodin, which
she abused.

She lied to the drug court team about her usage, Keiser said.

Wellmaker is now behind bars at a women's state prison in Chowchilla.

Her story, however, is more the exception than the rule for drug court
participants in the Mother Lode, experts say.

The programs - an alternative to the regular criminal justice system - are
both difficult and successful, said Tuolumne County Drug Court Program
Coordinator Robert Finnegan.

"Close to 98 percent of the people who successfully complete any type of
drug treatment program remain sober and stay out of trouble," said
Finnegan, who manages both adult drug court and dependency or family drug
court.

Success rate

The key to drug court's success is constant monitoring from the drug team
and a no-excuses stance judges have toward participants who miss a drug
test, fail to go to counseling, don't get a job or go back to school, or
those who miss a supervised visit with their children.

"The judge becomes their parent they either don't have or didn't have,"
Finnegan said.

Drug court, which began in Florida in 1989, is successful when abusers
complete the program. However, it isn't easy to change what in some cases
is a lifetime of destructive behavior patterns.

"It's the hardest thing in the world to do; getting clean and sober,"
Finnegan said. "These people sometimes have empty lives, and they fill it
with methamphetamine."

Calaveras County's Drug Court began three years ago and eight people have
graduated. There are always 11 participants - the maximum allowed in the
program.

Tuolumne County's Drug Court began in 1999 and 147 men and women have
participated - 76 have graduated, 71 did not and most of those were sent to
prison.

Money saver

Drug courts have saved California close to $43 million in incarceration
costs, a state agency said in a report released Wednesday to legislators.

The report comes as lawmakers consider changing Proposition 36, approved by
voters five years ago, so that it would mimic drug courts by letting judges
send offenders to jail for brief periods for violating provisions of their
treatment.

As approved by 61 percent of voters, Proposition 36 bars any incarceration
for first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders.

But the Assembly is considering a Senate-approved bill that would let
judges employ what's called "flash incarcerations" for Proposition 36
offenders as well as those diverted to drug courts.

Senators were swayed by law enforcement concerns, and by studies showing 30
percent of offenders sent to treatment under Proposition 36 never show up
and just 24 percent complete their treatment.

Wednesday's report by the California Department of Alcohol and Drug
Programs found that drug courts reduced substance abuse and saved
taxpayers' more than $42.8 million in prison costs between January 2001 and
July 2004.

The study tracked more than 10,000 adult and juvenile offenders in 46 counties.

It calculated that every dollar spent on drug court participants saved
$1.31 in prison costs alone, diverting adult offenders from a total of more
than 1.1 million days in prison.

In addition, offenders completed more than 47,500 hours of community service.

Family drug courts reunited more than 600 children with one or both
parents, and nearly 700 participants were making regular child support
payments, the study found.

Of 8,555 adults who participated, 13 percent were homeless when they
entered the program, but 80 percent found housing as they went through drug
court.

It also found 96 percent of adults' urine tests and 90 percent of
juveniles' tests showed no drug use during the time they were overseen by
the courts.

How it works

Using meth, selling the drug and especially making it can lead to jail or
prison.

Some people accused of drug charges can plead guilty to their crimes and a
judge sentences them to drug court.

Participants sign a contract basically turning their lives over to a team
of people expert at getting drug abusers sober: probation officers, judges,
social workers and substance abuse counselors.

With drug court, participants give up certain civil rights, such as the
right to an attorney.

If they fail the program, they are usually sentenced to prison. But if a
person completes the program, the charges against them are dropped.

Mewhinney said drug court's goal is to get people to change lifestyles and
attitudes that lead to drug abuse.

More than 75 percent of the participants in Tuolumne and Calaveras
counties' drug court programs are meth users. The rest abuse prescription
drugs, alcohol or other drugs like heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

Tuolumne County has both an Adult Drug Court and Dependency Drug Court.
Calaveras County has only Adult Drug Court.

Some addicts have had their children taken away. Those parents go to
dependency drug court, where they both get sober and learn to be better
parents. Making nutritious meals and dealing with anger and frustration
without resorting to drugs are among topics taught.

In adult drug court, Mewhinney said, "Participants have to live in a clean
and sober environment, square up with DMV, get medical insurance, obtain
steady employment and get their GED if they didn't graduate from high school."

Judges and drug court case workers may even give input on jobs and who
participants should or shouldn't date.

During treatment, participants are tested for drugs or alcohol through
random urine testing. If they test "dirty" by having drugs in their system
or just don't show up for a test, the judge punishes them immediately with
a jail cell for a night or a weekend.

Ups and downs

Few who enter drug court make it through the entire program without at
least one sanction, Finnegan said.

During a court appearance, Lisa, a meth user and mother of a 2-year-old
girl, didn't show up for a drug test. She told Eric DuTemple, judge of
Tuolumne County's Drug Court, her dad died and she just "completely forgot
the test."

DuTemple wasn't moved. He sent her to jail for the weekend and canceled her
court-supervised visit with her daughter.

But the judge's attitude was different with John.

"You've done marvelous," DuTemple told John as he entered his final weeks
of the program. "Given your success and your commitment to sobriety, if
nothing else happens then in a month we can release you. I'm real proud of
what you've done."

John had tears in his eyes when the other members of his drug court group
clapped for his success.

Commitment to success

Drug court is a very labor-intensive program with many people putting in
long hours to help addicts.

They would rather do that then see addicts continue on a cycle of using,
getting arrested, having their children taken away, going to jail, getting
released and doing the same thing all over again.

"I run into people all the time who, after four or five years, are still
sober after completing drug court," Finnegan said. "They have gotten jobs,
they have new friends and they are leading good lives. That's the
motivation for us to keep these programs running."

Added Keiser: "I know in my heart that it works when people are held
accountable."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.