RESTORE FUNDING FOR DRUG COURT

Three years ago, Lina appeared in front of me for a detention hearing
in juvenile-dependency court after her 8-year-old son Jose had been
removed from her custody. Lina was dirty, disheveled and shaking from
withdrawal from alcohol. Her front teeth were missing, and she was
suffering from symptoms associated with her HIV.

Lina had been drinking for 34 years, had been in and out of jail, was
unemployed for most of her adult life and periodically resided in
homeless shelters. Her son had missed 98 days of the previous school
year, was displaying severe mental-health problems and learning
disabilities, and had never enjoyed any significant period of
stability with a sober parent.

A few days ago, I ran into Lina at Sommerville, a housing development
for rehabilitated female addicts and their children run by Camillus
House. She had been clean from drugs and alcohol for two years, she
had been steadily employed and stable in housing for more than a year,
had obtained a driver's license and had not been involved in any
criminal activities since appearing in front of me three years ago.

Lina was well groomed, had a full mouth of teeth, was asymptomatic for
HIV, had stopped smoking and was articulate and declared a "model"
resident by the staff at Sommerville. Jose, who is now 11, had been in
her custody for two years after spending 11 months in foster care. His
school attendance now is perfect, and his grades have greatly
improved. Lina works closely with the school, a private tutor and a
psychologist to address her son's many developmental and mental-health
needs.

Lina and Jose were fortunate enough to have received services through
Miami-Dade County's Juvenile Dependency Drug Court. The drug court was
established in 1998 in response to the revolving door of parents who
cycle in and out of the dependency court because of their addiction
and co-occurring mental-health problems. The drug court provides
comprehensive services and monitoring to drug- and alcohol-addicted
parents who are under the supervision of the Department of Children &
Families because of abuse and neglect of their children.

Unfortunately, the Florida Legislature, with no warning, cut its
yearly expenditure of $150,000 out of the court budget monies that pay
for the three master's-level social workers and administrative costs.
These social workers receive no health benefits, no paid vacation or
sick leave and are on call 24 hours a day to serve drug-court parents.
They sometimes work a 60-hour week with the most difficult population
imaginable -- dually diagnosed (mental health and addiction diagnoses)
traumatized women, and some men, seeking to retain custody of their
children.

Miami's dependency drug court has evolved into a model for dependency
drug courts nationwide and served as a catalyst for developing
community partnerships. One such partnership is with the University of
Miami's Linda Ray Intervention Center, which provides for drug-court
families, through federal grant funding, developmental screens on
their children ages 0-3 as well as interactive, especially designed,
parenting classes.

Preliminary data indicate that the dependency drug court has been
successful at breaking the cycle of addiction and changing the lives
of the parents and children who participate in the program. In four
years, the dependency drug court has graduated 62 parents with 208
children from the program. The court cannot survive, however, without
committed caseworkers trained in the therapeutic process who can work
with the families, navigate the social-services web and work with the
court.

Legislators should understand that even if dependency drug court had
been successful only with Lina's family, it would have already saved
the state much more than $150,000 per year in foster care,
delinquency, truancy, additional treatment for addiction and
mental-health problems, medical care related to HIV, future
substance-exposed children and criminal violations.

Hurting Real People

Legislators should keep in mind that eliminating crucial funding, with
no warning to boot, evidences cruel and callous indifference to the
people who have put their hearts and souls into building the drug
court as well as to the families who depend on the drug court to help
them create a new life.

Drug court is a community of real people who have formed a partnership
to give families hope. A lot of hard work and commitment has gone into
establishing and growing the court. If the monies cut cannot be
replicated from some other source, the Legislature will have done
Floridians, whom they were elected to represent, a tremendous disservice.