COURT IS SHOWING SUCCESS

Officials are touting the success of the Lafourche Parish Drug Treatment
Court, which has a recidivism rate of 4 percent.

"We're a very young drug court," Cheryl Breaux Scharf, clinical director
and administrator of the program, said Wednesday. "We're very proud of the
fact we have a 4 percent recidivism rate."

Scharf called the statistics "an indication that we're doing the right
thing" and that officials are reviewing them to help improve the program.

The court has been in operation since April 1999, started by now-retired
Judge John J. Erny Jr. who served as the court's judge until 2001. Since
then Judge John E. LeBlanc has presided over it. The court handles cases
involving drug offenders, offering them supervision, drug testing,
treatment services and immediate sanctions and incentives.

The program allows them to get away from a drug lifestyle, Scharf said.
Participants interact with the judge, a prosecutor, defense counsel,
substance abuse treatment specialists, probation officers, law enforcement
and correctional personnel, educational and vocational experts and
community leaders.

Recent data show those who graduate are much less likely to relapse into
their former lifestyle, Scharf said. The recidivism rate is defined by the
number of drug court graduates who are convicted of a crime within two
years of graduation.

The national recidivism rate is about 68 percent for those who are
chemically addicted, but do not go through a drug court program after
arrest. The national recidivism rate ranges from 4 to 20 percent for those
who successfully complete a drug court program.

Over the last four years, 194 offenders have been admitted and 74 have
graduated. Only three of the graduates have been convicted of a new
offense, Scharf said.

The drug court idea got its start in 1989 in Miami. The success of that
program led to approximately 1,200 drug courts in operation across the
nation today.

The idea is to help non-violent drug users turn their lives around. It also
helps the legal system, she said, by reducing crime in the community, the
jail population and the number of people with a chemical dependency.

Drug court is also less expensive than sending offenders to jail, she said.

The program is voluntary. Offenders must plead guilty to a charge and be
sentenced. The judge then suspends the sentence if the person completes the
program. The court monitors and drug-tests them three times a week, Scharf
said. They may be treated in a treatment facility or on an outpatient
basis. The program lasts one year to 18 months.

Last month, drug court held its fourth graduation ceremony.

When District Judge Jerome Barbera attended as guest speaker, and told 11
graduates, their families and friends that those who attended drug court
reminded him of those with whom he attended law school.

"There were people who had turned their lives upside down to get into law
school," he told the graduates in the crowded courtroom at the old
courthouse in Thibodaux. He said attending drug court carried similar
personal responsibility for offenders.

"Those of you graduating, by coming into this program, have sent a
message," he said, "that you want to take responsibility.

"You chose life over death, family and friends over those trying to kill
you and those people who want to own you."

He told them to be grateful to court officials and treatment specialists
because they have been given a second chance.

As several of the graduates spoke upon receiving their certificates of
completion, they universally thanked the court.

"I'm just grateful that I stopped fighting the court," said graduate
Richard Taylor. "You all were right to send me (to a halfway house). If it
wasn't for the halfway house, I wouldn't have changed my way of thinking."
Taylor added that the program gave his life a structure it had lacked
before. Other graduates echoed that theme.

Tommy Daniels, who said he started taking drugs at age 7 because he was
raised with drugs in his family, said he thought he had run out of luck,
but said drug court gave him another chance.

"For almost three years, I've lived this good honest life and I like it,"
he said. "I could never repay y'all for the life you've given me. I could
never thank y'all, never."