DRUG COURT SEES SOME SUCCESS

Judges, law officers, counselors still ironing out kinks in program
Leflore County's Drug Court, still in its developmental stage,
appears to already have its first success story.

The first participant in the program, which seeks to rehabilitate
rather than incarcerate drug addicts who commit non-violent crimes,
has completed a 45-day residential treatment program at Denton House
and lives with a family member. As of next week, he will have been
sober for 90 days. He is now required to check in with Drug Court
every two weeks, but he has gone beyond that, voluntarily attending
weekly after-care classes.

"He's really a model participant," said Circuit Judge Betty Sanders,
who along with Circuit Judge Margaret Carey-McCray helped bring drug
court to Leflore, Sunflower and Washington counties.

Sanders attributes part of this participant's success to his
supportive family, who took care of him and provided a home after he
was released from treatment. If he stays clean, his drug court
participation will absolve his felony charge.

But, she said, the drug court's ultimate success hinges on what
Sanders has identified as a couple of "weak links:" the availability
of decent housing and open spots in treatment programs.

The drug court team also is working on ironing out some
inconsistencies, including a difference of opinion between law
enforcement and the treatment programs in defining the term "drug
addiction."

A Sunflower County participant has not fared as well as the Leflore
County man. Without a clean living environment to return to, she
moved back in with her boyfriend, a drug dealer, and relapsed,
Sanders said. This participant is back in residential treatment in a
Hinds County facility until the drug court can find housing for her.

When dealing with addictions, any recovery is nothing short of
miraculous, according to Fred Guenther, the Denton House director who
is a part of the drug court team's treatment arm. "There are going to
be failures, but that's the nature of addiction," he said. "The name
of the game is relapse. We're working with what is fundamentally a
brain disease, and how we treat it is another story altogether."

Denton House is currently serving three clients from Sunflower
County's Drug Court. Nunan Center, another residential facility in
Greenville, serves Washington County.

While the 45-day residential program is a step in the right
direction, it is not enough to cure the disease of addiction,
Guenther said. Certain factors can turn a client right back around.
"I've known plenty of people who have used the treatment center to
get their health back, and they go back on the street and use again."

Drug court tries to find a nurturing environment to reinforce the
treatment for the addicts it hopes to rehabilitate; but, as in the
Sunflower County case, that environment often is not readily
available. Drug Court participants cannot overstep other citizens
looking for housing either.

"The list is long," Sanders said. "A lot of people need housing."
Participants have run into another block before they even get into
treatment.

As state-run programs, Denton House and Nunan Center charge clients
within their districts on $100 - a popular price that brings constant
waiting lists, according to drug court team member Lee Williams,
director of Nunan Center. "We're both state-run, basically public,
facilities. Private facilities, such as Solutions in Greenville,
could probably get someone in spur-of-the-moment, but they would have
to have health insurance, Medicaid or a huge sum of money because
those are hospital-based units."

The state Department of Mental Health prohibits either program from
favoring or discriminating against any potential clients. Drug Court
participants are treated like any other clients, Guenther said. "We
are required to have a chronological waiting list."

To maintain diversity, Guenther said he has to limit drug court
clients to 25 percent of Denton House's total population. That
parameter goes for any group, eh said.

Leflore County has cleared its second case for treatment, but he is
currently out of jail and living at home. "We prefer them to go
directly to jail because they have problem," Sanders said. "And
because they have been in jail two weeks does not mean the problem
has waned."

During a regular Wednesday session, the drug court team discussed a
recommended participant rejected by Denton House when the SASSI, an
assessment test, determined him a drug dealer without a dependency on
drugs. The drug court program does not serve anyone who deals drugs,
commits a violent crime or has a severe mental illness.

The two narcotics officers on the team were stumped over the man,
whom they have known for three years as a heavy user and apparent
addict. "Who's going to know - the man giving the test who has just
met this guy, or us, who have known him for three years," said Sgt.
Demetrice Bedell of the Greenwood Police Department.

Said Sanders, "Two different agencies knew the guy as an addict, but
they are afraid his jail time altered the results of the SASSI."

Denton House uses the SASSI, which stands for Substance Abuse Subtle
Screening Test, for all of its clients, drug court or not. Guenther
said the test is used worldwide as a reliable test to uncover drug
dependency and criminal tendencies.

The 'subtle' in the name SASSI reflects the subtlety of the questions
asked, but the answers to those questions are quite vivid, he said.
"We apply the SASSI to see if our gut feeling and professional
assessment seems to match up with what the tests show."

The observations of drug court narcotics agents, however, have not
matched up with the results. "When he chooses to buy a piece of crack
over a piece of bread, he's got a problem," Bedell said. "I'm
confused because we're sending people to treatment and they're not
being admitted."

While the team is trying to address that discrepancy, both the legal
and treatment branches of the program agree that lies and deception
are the nature of both the criminal and the addict. And that presents
assessment problems.

"Obviously if you are dealing with addicts, addicts lie," which makes
the test necessary, said Sunflower defense attorney and drug court
team member Marie Wilson.

Said Guenther, "A large part of addiction is lying - lying to
yourself and others in terms of denial that you have a problem and
lying so you can maintain the drug and alcohol abuse."