Pubdate: Wed, 11 Sep 2002
Source: Daily Herald-Tribune (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002 Daily Herald -Tribune
Contact:  http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1840
Author: Doug Brown

DRUG CONVICTION 'RESCUED' WOMAN FROM LIFE OF DESPAIR

If Diana Gardiner came face-to-face with the Grande Prairie RCMP constable 
who busted her for cocaine trafficking and set her up for a three-year 
stint in federal prison, she'd shake his hand.

But in June 2000 Gardiner - a mother, a grandmother, and also a hard-core 
cocaine addict and trafficker - would probably have spit on him.

Earlier that year she'd spent each of her four children's birthday and 
Christmas present money for a fix. For 30 years she'd been either drinking 
or doing drugs, or both.

By that summer she was doing up to $1,000 worth of coke a day, dealing on 
the side to keep the money - and the drugs - coming.

In early June a police crackdown collared almost 50 drug users and sellers 
in the Grande Prairie area, including Gardiner.

"I thought I had a hold on my life. I thought I knew what I was doing," she 
said.

A conviction on three charges of drug trafficking said different. She was 
sentenced to three years while her family watched from the courtroom 
gallery. "I blew a kiss and said I love you as I was led away."

Two years later Gardiner is on parole from the federal pen, living in 
Grande Prairie again, and working with her former jailers to spread her 
message. Tuesday night she spoke to a small gathering at a public forum put 
on by Correctional Services Canada about how the counselling and programs 
she received in jail turned her life around.

"I wasn't arrested, I was rescued... Jail saved my life," she said.

Gardiner confronted and quelled the personal demons of childhood trauma, 
sexual abuse and abusive relationships at the root of her drug abuse.

She worked two jobs while in prison, and now edits a monthly newsletter for 
female inmates.

And she says she wants to begin speaking at high schools next, to stop kids 
before they fall into the same hell of drug abuse she did.

"I want the new, improved Diana to be someone people can be proud of, 
especially my family."

Diana is the face of corrections that the public doesn't see enough of - 
the over 85 per cent of former inmates who successfully reintegrate back 
into their communities, says spokeswoman Arlene Barnes.

"One of the greatest challengers facing Correctional Services is low public 
awareness... often misconceptions shape what the public knows," she said at 
Tuesday's forum.

The public meeting was also a chance for corrections to promote the growing 
volunteer effort in Grande Prairie. The number of federal inmates from the 
area is increasing along with the population, said volunteer co-ordinator 
Linda Price, but so is the number of people helping parolees rejoin their 
community.

Corrections volunteers can simply pray for inmates and staff, or become 
involved in support, counselling, housing and activities for prisoners on 
release, she said.

"We cannot do a complete job of getting people back into their communities 
without help from individuals like yourself," said Price.

"There is a tender spot in every offender and it's the community's and 
CSC's job to bring that tender spot out."
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