Pubdate: Sat, 12 Jan 2002
Source: Messenger-Inquirer (KY)
Copyright: 2002 Messenger-Inquirer
Contact:  http://www.messenger-inquirer.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1285
Author: David Blackburn, Messenger-Inquirer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

CIRCUIT JUDGE BEGINS DRUG COURT TO HELP ADDICTS

GREENVILLE -- Circuit Judge David Jernigan greeted the first five 
participants in the new Muhlenberg Drug Court with kind, but firm, words 
Friday afternoon.

"We're not your enemy," the judge told the woman and four men standing 
before him in the third-floor Circuit Courtroom of the Muhlenberg County 
Courthouse. "We want you to do well; we don't want you behind bars."

But that is where they will go if they use alcohol and illegal drugs or 
disobey the terms of probation during the one to two years of the Drug 
Court program.

If that happens, "you will flunk and you will go back to jail and serve out 
your time," Jernigan said during the 30-minute inaugural session.

Jernigan knows that people in the program, which tries to rehabilitate 
people with addictions and reduce the number of repeat offenders, "are more 
likely to violate probation than non-addicts.

"What we're doing is just spending . . . extra time with these 
individuals," he said.

With the drug court, "you don't see same faces in court over and over 
again," said Marianne Darity, the court's volunteer coordinator.

Other Drug Court team members include Jernigan, Sheriff Jerry Mayhugh, 
probation/parole officer Tommy Fauntleroy, Commonwealth's Attorney Ralph 
Vick, public defender Paul Allen and Bruce Penrod with the Pennyroyal 
Mental Health Center in Greenville.

Jernigan ordered all five people to find a job if they don't already have 
one; to enroll in General Education Diploma (GED) classes if they don't 
have a high school education; and to work toward a stable living environment.

"This Drug Court team felt it was important that you attend AA or NA 
meetings," Jernigan said in ordering them to attend at least drug three 
meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous next week.

Team members will meet every Friday morning to review each case and make 
sure the five keep all appointments and counseling sessions, he warned.

"You will be sanctioned for each violation," Jernigan said. Possible 
punishments range from community service to added counseling and drug 
screens to jail time, he said.

The judge also ordered them to bring with them to next week's session a 
one-to two-page report telling him of their history of drug use and a list 
of drugs to which they think they are addicted.

All five have said they are addicted to, or have tried, methamphetamine and 
marijuana, Darity said.

Of the three who said they were hooked on meth, "every one of them told me 
they were hooked the first time they tried it," Darity said.

It was a rise in meth cases in particular, and drug-related criminal cases 
in general, that prompted Jernigan to join the Drug Court program in mid-2000.

"I decided there had to be an alternative to the way we are doing things," 
he said. "We just have a lot of meth addicts."

Jernigan's analysis of 1999 and 2000 cases showed that of the 431 
indictments returned by local grand juries, 312, or 72 percent, included at 
least one drug charge.

That did not include the countless other charges -- robbery, burglary, 
thefts, cold checks -- that are often committed to help feed an addiction, 
he said.

Drug Court team members received training last year in Louisiana, New York 
City and Louisville in sessions sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The court is open to those with a felony drug conviction who have no 
history of violence and no sex offenses or drug-trafficking convictions. 
Vick initially recommends possible participants, who then are interviewed 
by the Drug Court team.

The first phase lasts eight weeks, followed by a 16-week second phase in 
which the number of counseling appointments and court dates are reduced, 
Jernigan told the five participants. Those obligations are further reduced 
during the 24-week third phase, he said.
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