A Fighting Chance: Part 3

ALBION, Ind. (WANE) - Thursday evening, NewsChannel 15 gave you an inside look at Noble County's drug court program. That county has a major problem with meth; in fact, state police say it led the state in meth busts in 2008.

Almost 3 years ago, it started its own drug court to combat that problem. The court's an intensive one-and-a-half to three-year alternative sentencing program. Offenders are subject to random drug screens the whole time and have several weekly meetings with probation officers, counselors, and a judge.

In this report, we look at the program's results and talk to some of the people who say it's giving them a fighting chance.
 

"Soft on crime" and "an inordinate drain on probation officers' time & resources" are both charges skeptics have leveled at the nation's 2100 drug court programs. Kendallville Police Detective Lance Waters used to be one of those skeptics until he was appointed to Noble County's drug court team this year. Now, he's a believer.

"I've seen a lot of people -some of them recent graduates- that I used to chase," says Waters. "I watched 4 people graduate last month that I didn't think -before I got involved in drug court- that I didn't think had a chance. They're not the same people I knew 3, 4, 5 years ago."

He's talking about people like Mark Keene, a former meth addict who'd been in and out of jail since he was 15. Now, at 39, he's finally been clean for two years and was one of Noble County's first drug court graduates.

"When I graduated drug court, that first week was the hardest," says Keene. "Everybody wanted to come over [and said] 'Hey, you've got to celebrate.' I did celebrate. I went to Richard's restaurant with my mother, my kids, and my old lady I've got now. It's just nice. I wouldn't trade what I've got now for all the stuff that I have went through in my past. It's really amazing."

Keene says drug court has brought accountability into his life, and taught him to handle his problems constructively instead of drowning them in drugs and alcohol; skills he never developed behind bars.

"To put them in jail makes them hardened criminals.," says Noble County Drug Court counselor Dan Schreck. "When they come out, they know exactly what to do [and] when to do it because they've talked with folks that are... you know, have been doing it for years."

"Wil"l, whose full identity drug court leaders didn't want us to reveal, can attest to that. Now 40, he'd been on drugs like meth since he was a teenager. At one point, he was locked up for ten years. Now, he's working his way through the Noble County Drug Court program and has been clean for more than a year.

"I'm getting to know my son, which he's going to be 20 this December. I've been locked up half his life. And that was all his young years. You know, I missed out on changing my own son's diaper," Will says.

Danyel Wagner is Noble County's drug court coordinator; the one who really pushed to start the program 3 years ago. She says it's been heartening to see lives changed as meth users' brains slowly repair themselves to embrace emotions -like warmth toward other people- and to live for something besides getting high.

"A lot of them will say that they never knew they could live their lives without drugs and alcohol and this has shown them that it's possible," says Wagner.

"I want to enjoy and cherish everything that I missed before: my children, my grandchildren, my girlfriend and her daughter. I just want to build the life that you probably have," Will told NewsChannel 15.

"For the first time in my life last year I went to my first school play. And it was really nice," says Keene. "I go to parent-teacher conferences now. I'd never done that before. I couldn't go to a school in the shape I was in because 9 out of 10 [times] I was always high."

"The drug court program's the best thing that's ever happened to Noble County. It's actually giving people a chance," says Will.
 

But is the drug court cutting down on Noble County's meth problems? There's no way to prove a direct correlation and, as we've pointed out, critics are skeptical about drug court programs' long-term effectiveness.

However, last year, Kendallville Police say they busted forty-nine meth labs. Through the first 9 months of this year, they'd only had to bust twenty; on pace for about half of last year's total.

In just under 3 years, a total of about sixty-six offenders have tried Noble County's program. Seventeen of those have flunked out, 8 have graduated, and about forty are still in it. Of those, leaders predict all but 4 or 5 will graduate. That would give the program about a 66% short-term success rate.
 

The state says Noble is one of only three northeast Indiana counties with a drug court program. The others are Allen and Wabash. Judge Fran Gull says Allen County's program has seen 411 graduates since its inception in 1996 and currently has 108 participants. Wabash County leaders say that county's program was started at about the same time as Noble's