Drug court honors special month

For Teresa Simkins, the choice to enter Mineral County's drug court program was a needed step that allowed her to change her life for the better.

"I figured it was time to make the change and I figured usually when I put my mind to something I can do it," Simkins said recalling her decision to submit herself to the program. "I put my mind to it and I did it. It definitely changed my life, it changes everything about you."

Simkins is one of now 29 individuals that have graduated from the drug court program. On Wednesday, May 19, the 29th individual graduated and on June 2nd, the 30th individual is scheduled to do so as well. However, the graduation Wednesday was also special as the drug court team held the first luncheon earlier in the afternoon to commemorate May as National Drug Court Month. Simkins was one of several alumnae that were invited back.

The drug court program in Mineral County was started back with the youth in 2001 and then was established for adults in 2006. To date, youth court has had 25 participants and adult drug court has seen 53 adults apply. Currently, the drug court program in Mineral County is one of 19 in the state of Montana and one of 2,300 nationwide. Montanan state drug court coordinator Jeff Kushner called the number of courts a great accomplishment as the first program was started back in 1989. The program works to restore individuals to a community rather than take them out of one.

"Drug courts accomplish a great deal," Kushner said. "Roughly 75 to 80 percent of the cases that come into municipal and district courts now are drug-alcohol related cases. It's important that we find the most effective mechanisms to get these people back on track and productive and paying takes and off the dough and that's what we do."

Kushner said that with the traditional probation for drug offenders you see a re-offense rate of somewhere between 45 and 60 percent over two year period, while with drug court programs the re-offense rate is down, falling between nine and one percent.

"There are some programs out there that aren't working that entirely well, but this isn't one of them," said Senator Greg Hinkle who was also in attendance. "I think it (drug court) brings people aware that they got a problem and they need to deal with it and that's one of the first steps in the whole process."

The goal of the program and the team is that they want to see change in people's lives.

"There's nothing harder than changing yourself," said Shaun Donovan, the prosecutor for the drug court team. "We all talk about that, changing our lives, and most of us do very little."

"I think some people think that individuals have to hit rock bottom and want to change in order to get clean and sober and what the research is showing is that treatment programs have techniques that are well established enough that we can help people overcome their ambivalence to getting clean and sober," Kushner said, "and actually coerced treatment in a drug court program like this is more effective."

People coming into drug court aren't stepping into a "fluff program." Wanda James, the judge in the program, said that individuals submit themselves to the team and that in doing so give them access to control every little detail of their life from doctor appointments, who they can hang out with and trips they can take.

"(A graduation) is the accumulation of their effort to complete their treatment, to get through a difficult intensive program and to put up with us," James said.

Donovan said that the team believes that the program has had a real impact on the lives of those who go through it.

"We think that most for most of them it's been real positive impact on their life and most of them seem to have benefitted a lot from the program," Donovan said.

For Simkins, the program has changed her life. She admitted that it is a challenging and rigorous program that forces you to look to look at yourself and why you do what you do. She said that if you want the program to work, it will. As for the staff, Simkins said that they became more like a big family. She said that she would recommend the program to anyone and said that she is glad for the events in her own life that led her to it.

"I'm glad I was arrested that night," Simkins said. "And coming here today was a reality check for me."