DRUG COURT'S STRINGENT DEMANDS FORCE PARTICIPANTS TO CHANGE HOW THEY LIVE

Every morning of each week, the 57 participants of the local drug
court make a very important phone call.

Anyone who doesn't goes to jail. It's as simple as
that.

"Every morning at five I change the message on the Call Notes," said
District 18 Drug Court Administrator Angie Marcum. "They have to call
to find out if they need to come in to take a drug test or not."

Just calling isn't enough, though. They have to leave work or school
and go to the drug court, which is across the street from the
Pittsburg County Courthouse.

"If they don't come in for the test, it's considered a positive test
and they go to jail," Marcum said. "We believe in giving chances, but
not chance after chance after chance."

When it comes to chances, these non-violent felony offenders will only
get one when it comes to completing drug court.

Anyone who doesn't comply with all the rules goes to prison. Some of
the participants are looking at spending two and three decades in
prison if they don't successfully complete the 18 to 24 months it
takes to finish the drug court program.

During that time they lose all rights to privacy. Even HIPPA laws,
which protect a person's health-related information, don't cover them.

No secrets

"There are no secrets in drug court," Marcum said, adding that not
only do people voluntarily waive their Constitutional rights when they
enter the program, but they are watched nearly all the time.

"We even watch them when they give a urine specimen," she
said.

Drug court participants are not allowed to leave Pittsburg County --
and certainly not the state of Oklahoma -- without permission from the
drug court. Everyone in the program must have a land line telephone
and live in an approved place.

They can't go to parties where there will be alcohol or drugs. They
can't go into bars or clubs or taverns. Liquor stores are forbidden,
too.

Participants cannot in any way communicate with anyone who is on
probation or parole; is a former convict or current inmate or
associate with anyone who has a criminal record unless that person is
also a part of the drug court program.

Drug court can even tell you where to sleep at night.

"The judge can change the jurisdiction of where you live, too," Marcum
said. "If you live in the country and he wants you to live in the
city, bam! You're moving to the city. We do whatever it takes to get
you out of that environment, to keep you clean."

Monitoring where a participant lives even extends to include any other
people who live in that house. "If you live with someone, they have to
agree to random drug tests, too, and there can't be any alcohol in the
house," she said, before adding that recently there was an instance in
which the husband was drinking, and his wife had to leave the premises
until the home was once again alcohol-free.

She was gone all weekend.

"Also, the place where a participant lives is subject to random
searches by the sheriff's department at any time, even in the middle
of the night. If the drug court participant is living with someone and
they refuse to allow their house to be searched, we won't search their
house but we will make the participant leave.

"But if the participant owns his house and refuses to allow it to be
searched, he will go immediately to jail."

Vehicles and any other property in the name of a person in drug court
can be searched at any time, also.

"If you're going to act like a kindergartener, we're going to treat
you like a kindergartener," Marcum said.

Bill money for drugs

At the age of 22, Jason Simpson sat in Special Judge Bill Layden's
courtroom and said he'd been a disappointment to his parents.

But now that's he a part of drug court, Simpson said he's regained
their trust. "I was a liar, a thief, a dishonest person. I would even
take the bill money and use it to buy drugs.

"I just went crazy with it," he said of his drug use.

Clean now for more than 200 days, and doing all he can to stay out of
prison for a possible 10 years, Simpson said there's one day of
drugging that he can never get back.

And it breaks his heart.

"I got busted, and it was my mom's birthday," he said. "I had to call
her from jail to wish her a happy birthday."

His mother wasn't home. Simpson said he was glad of the reprieve, but
it was still hard to tell his stepfather, "Tell Mom Happy Birthday."

That, he promised everyone in the courtroom, will never happen again --
Mom's birthday or not. "I really hurt my family, but I won't be doing
that again because I won't be doing drugs again," Simpson said.

Learning new things

One of the goals of drug court is to make sure that everyone who
graduates from the program has at least a General Equivalency Diploma.
Participants will be given skills assessments. Then they will be
provided with referrals for vocational training, education and/or job
placement services.

Marcum said that sometimes participants come from families with long
histories of drug and alcohol abuse. That means that even though they
want to get clean and stay clean, they may not know any other way of
life, or how to do certain things.

"We will help them," she said. "If they need to learn how to clean a
house, we'll get somebody to teach them how to clean a house. If they
need help with budgeting, we will teach them that."

In fact, all drug court members have to show their paycheck stubs and
itemize what they spent their money on each month. "If it looks like
too much money is going out, we want to know," Marcum said, adding
that it could mean the person has been buying drugs.

Sometimes people have to be taught how to care for their children. One
of the goals of drug court is keeping families intact. "We're keeping
children out of the system by keeping them with a parent instead of in
the custody of the Department of Human Services, in foster care,"
Marcum said.

Having children in the home means regular, healthy meals must be
served. Drug court can make sure people are taught how to provide
proper nutrition, too. Marcum is proud of the fact that the people who
have volunteered for and been accepted into the drug court program
"look healthy. They look good.

"We are saving lives here with this program -- the lives of the
participants and the lives of unborn children because their mothers
are clean. This program is important and I hope we continue to get
funding so we can keep it going."

The Drug Court's phone number is 423-7323.