WOMAN BEATS DRUGS, CREDITS JUDGE, COURT

After falling to the depths of drug addiction that took her health, family,
freedom and self-respect, Idice Terry has found a rewarding, healthy,
bustling, drug-free life.

She's back with her children and husband. She has a good job and renewed
self-esteem.

And she credits the tough George-Greene Drug Court run by Circuit Judge
Kathy King Jackson, who has a reputation for toughness.

"Judge Jackson, through Drug Court, makes you find your self-worth," Terry
said. "She keeps you busy and makes you realize there is good. I was scared
of Judge Jackson and I still am. We knew that she would send you to
Parchman without blinking an eye. But I found out that she has heart. She
cares."

When she graduated from George County High School in 1992, Idice Reeves
Terry, 29, never expected to get hooked on methamphetamine.

"I was around drugs, but I never used them until the summer of '02," she
recalled. "It got to the point where it was a lot cheaper to just make it,
so we had a full-blown meth lab. We didn't sell. We just gave it away. It
was a partying thing. When you have meth, you have more friends than you
know what to do with. Everyone was saying, 'Let's just go to Idice's house
and party.'

Her day and night parties ended March 14, 2003, when a drug task force
raided the meth lab and arrested her and her husband on six charges.

"There were cops everywhere," she recalled. "I thought, 'Lord, my life is
over. I'm going to prison forever. The state will take my kids. There is no
way out.'

But there was.

She heard about a new Drug Court and is now so grateful she was accepted.

"I had no idea what Drug Court was, but I knew anything was better than
going to prison," she said.

She was struggling through detoxification in a Mobile rehabilitation
program. She was physically ill, weighing less than 100 pounds.

Terry admits she entered the program with thoughts of a typical addict:
Fake it until you make it. "I figured a two-year program, I can do this and
go back out there and know how to keep from getting caught again."

The court program changed her perspective, she said.

"I have a good life today. I work in an attorney's office. My husband got
out of prison in November and is in the Drug Court program, too, and
working as a carpenter. We have a home that's paid for. We're a family again."

She takes her 2-year-old son to day care and 11-year-old daughter to school
every day. She credits the support her parents gave and other support
organizations with restoring meaning and normalcy to life.

Drug Court requires that she and others in the program have a job, read
books and improve their education, attend Alcoholics and Narcotics
Anonymous meetings, get drug counseling and take and pass drug tests.

"Drug Court will get you clean, or you go back to jail," Terry is quick to
point out. "It's rehabilitation vs. incarceration."

The rules and regulations are difficult for persons struggling with drugs
or alcohol.

"It's all about following directions, and at first I fought it tooth and
nail," she said. "I hated reading, but I got my library card and now I read
a lot. I would love to go to college. I want to go into criminal law."

"I want her to go to college," Jackson said. "In the second year of this
program, I expect her to be in college."

Jackson called Terry a model participant. "She has done everything I ever
asked of her. A year ago, her whole life was a mess. She has pulled herself
up. It's amazing."

Terry encourages other counties to invest in Drug Court programs, which do
not accept drug dealers or violent offenders.

So far, the 30 participants in the George-Greene program have remained
drug-free and regained their lives.

It is estimated that as many as 150 people caught up in drug problems could
qualify for the program being instituted in Jackson County.

"How do you put a price on someone's life?" Terry asked. "I would be dead,
or in prison, and most likely dead, at the rate I was going.

"This court will get you clean and give you self-esteem, self-respect,
self-motivation and self-discipline. All these things are priceless."

Since Nov. 1, 2002, the program has saved George County $44,650, Greene
County $23,287 and the state $193,188 in housing costs alone.

"I'm tired of doing stuff that doesn't work," Jackson said. "I'm a realist,
and Drug Court works."

Just look at Idice Terry.

"A year ago I was strung out on meth, walking dead. Now life's about
getting down on the floor and playing with my 2-year-old, or helping my
daughter with her homework," she said. "I want her to learn from my mistakes."