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- Posted January 20, 2012 at 11:45 p.m., The Record Searchlight, redding.com
Judge Cara Beatty (left) talks about the successes of Addicted Offender Program graduates Ashley Kuhns-McCain (center), Ilena Barreau, Raymond Byrd, Donna Miller, Julie Roseann Pico and Savannah McCoey during their commencement ceremony Friday at the Shasta County Courthouse. The ceremony marked the participants’ completion of a comprehensive drug treatment program. “It’s one of my favorite solutions we have in the criminal justice system,” Beatty said. “It’s a creation of a new life. And for me, as a judge, it’s the best assignment you could ever have.”
click here to read the full article…
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SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT
PRESS RELEASE
Santa Barbara County celebrates the implementation of a Veterans Treatment Court in Santa Maria
Santa Maria – On Tuesday, November 22, 2011, Santa Barbara County will celebrate the launch of the county’s first Veterans Treatment Court with an inaugural ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Cultural Center in Santa Maria. The ceremony will begin at 12:00 pm and will include local and statewide community leaders, guest speakers, local service organizations, representatives from the Veterans Administration and the local Boots & Chutes All Airborne Association Color Guard. Lunch will be served.
The Santa Maria Veterans Treatment Court will be the newest addition to the existing Collaborative Justice Programs in Santa Barbara County. Veterans Treatment Courts are responses to the growing trend of veterans appearing before the courts to face charges stemming from substance abuse, mental illness and trauma. Treatment courts have always served veteran populations; but, research has shown that traditional services do not always adequately meet the needs of veterans. This specific calendar will focus on helping justice involved veterans by coordinating the services and benefits available to them.
To learn more about Veterans Treatment Courts including resources, legislation, and statistics, visit www.justiceforvets.org.
For additional information contact Amy Lopez, Drug Court Coordinator, at (805) 614-1566 or via email at amlopez@co.santa-barbara.ca.us.
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In 1994, the City of San Bernardino started what was then a novel experiment. Instead of sending people arrested for drug offenses through the court system, San Bernardino started a Drug Court. As we’ve noted here previously, Drug Court is a drug-intervention program administered through the court system to divert defendants from jail and into drug treatment and rehabilitation.
Deborah Cima is the Treatment Court Coordinator for the San Bernardino Drug Court [PDF] and has 14 years of experience in the criminal justice field. Today, she plays a significant role in the success of the San Bernardino Drug Court Program.
Roberta Albano
California Report, ouRXperience, produced by KQED
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STEPHEN FORBES
Last updated 05:00 21/10/2011
The Waitakere District Court looks set to be the home of a new trial drug court from June next year. Judge Lisa Tremewan has been working for the past two years to bring the project to fruition. “We know these courts work and we will prove they work,” she says. “They aren’t the soft option.” Only offenders who plead guilty will be eligible to be dealt with through the new pilot programme. Their sentence will then be deferred while they undergo treatment and they will be subject to random drug testing. The programme is set to deal with about 100 offenders a year with treatment-related costs of about $2 million. Judge Tremewan from the Waitakere court has travelled to the United States and Australia to see how effective the system is. Justice Minister Simon Power and Courts Minister Georgina te Heuheu announced on Wednesday that the government will establish a pilot drug court in Auckland.
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bobbi.albano@yahoo.com
Mary is a beautiful, slender woman in her 40s. She works in the aerospace industry during the day and tonight, she will be going to her Human Services class at San Bernardino Valley College. “Mary” is not her real name; she asked me to not reveal her name because anonymity is a part of her drug recovery program.
In 2001 Mary was arrested for possession of a controlled substance for sales. Yes, Mary was addicted to and selling drugs. She had three small children and was doing her best to be a mother and a wife, but the addiction had taken control of her life.
She was in and out of homes, mostly not her own. She was stolen from and abused. This was not the vision her parents had for her when she was a little girl. Mary’s parents were average middle-class folks and most of Mary’s friends were the same.
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By Marga K. Cooley, Associate Editor
Angela Giles is no stranger to the harsh world of drug addiction.
Her dad died from a heroin overdose, other close relatives are addicts, and in the last 18 months she’s had three of her childhood friends overdose and die.
“My family life, as well as my friends, it was just alcohol and drugs and gangs. That’s kind of what I was exposed to since a really early age,” said Giles, 32, who grew up in Lompoc and started using methamphetamine in her early teens. “I grew up thinking that was normal.”
That was until she landed in Superior Court Judge Rogelio Flores’s “drug court,” after running a red light on her BMX bicycle at Broadway and Main Street in Santa Maria — high on meth.
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By KAREN RIFKIN
Updated: 10/01/2011 11:59:38 PM PDT
Sid Gardner, president of Children and Family Futures, presented an optimistic interim report to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning concerning the 81 parents and 126 children who are being served by the Mendocino County Family Dependency Drug Court (FDDC).
The mission of Children and Family Futures, located in Irvine, is to improve the lives of children and families, particularly those affected by substance use disorders. The organization provides technical assistance to the 53 agencies throughout the United States that have been recipients of a five-year federal funding grant whose goal it is to decrease alcohol and drug recidivism in parents, enabling them to successfully reunite with their children.
“We just heard some very moving testimony from three women, graduates of the program here in Mendocino County, who were reunited with their children. One said that she learned to trust the system; another praised her caseworker; and the third commended the treatment program itself. It was striking to hear this. In our business these statements are rare, and they certainly pay tribute to the successful collaboration of people who are making this program work here,” said Gardner.
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