Kanawha drug court hopes to break cycle of addiction

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - When Kanawha County launches its drug court in the next few months, officials hope to draw on the collective wisdom of the more than 2,100 drug courts already in operation nationwide.

"They know what works, and they know what doesn't work," Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey Walker said of the National Drug Court Institute, an umbrella organization that provides education, research and scholarship to court-based intervention programs.

West Virginia already has four regional adult drug courts, and is poised to add five more in early 2009. Two juvenile drug courts are also up and running in Cabell and Wayne counties.

Kanawha County is within weeks of hiring its drug court coordinator and will follow that by hiring an addiction counselor, said Walker, who has led a team that includes representatives from the county's prosecutor office, public defender's office and day-report center for a year and a half.

"We are the largest county in the state. We have the most diverse population," Walker said. "We should have a model drug court, something that others look to for guidance and direction."

Walker traced her own dedication to a class she attended at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nev., not long after she was first appointed to the bench in 2002.

The class took the students to a working drug court, she said.

"I just felt it was so compelling to see a judge's rapport with people on a different level," she recalled. "This is where [offenders] have an accountability relationship with the judge, where they see them every week."

Walker's efforts have been supported by the Kanawha County Commission, whose grant writer, Jennifer Sayre, helped secure a $334,480 federal grant in September. The state has awarded Kanawha County an additional grant of $295,511.50 from the money secured in the OxyContin settlement with drug maker Purdue Pharma, Walker said.

Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Plants said he is also on board with the drug court project.

"Drug courts provide a tremendous opportunity to reduce the number of repeat offenders by rehabilitating the offenders. You basically attack the problem at the root," he said.

When it works, addicts no longer steal, rob and commit other offenses trying to feed their addictions, he said.

"Everybody gave

up on us but you"

Drug courts have gained momentum in West Virginia in part because the state's first forays into the endeavor have been successful.

"There's that whole perception that this is easy on crime, but it's not," said James R. Lee, chief probation officer for the 1st Judicial Circuit, which covers Hancock, Brooke and Ohio counties.

"This program is tougher than being in jail where you get three meals a day and watch TV," he said.

Offenders must successfully complete three phases of treatment before "graduating," he said. Each phase lasts at least four months, but setbacks and relapses mean that most addicts take closer to 18 to 24 months to finish.

In the initial phase of treatment, in addition to extensive random drug testing and spot checks at home, participants are supervised in some way six days a week, Lee said. Each weekday, they have to report in to drug court officials after work; if they're not working, they have to go to the day report centers every morning at 8 a.m.

They also meet face to face with a judge every week.

On Saturdays, offenders perform community service, such as litter cleanup, he said.

By phase three, they are expected to have permanent housing and to have a job or be in school or vocational training, he said. In addition to meeting monthly with a judge, they are also supposed to go to at least three Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings a week.

"It's hard to get people off drugs. It takes six months without being on drugs to get the brain to clear up so that they can think cognitively. And that's a challenge," he said. "They hate us in phase one, but they love us in phase three."