Charlie Allen said the pole came out of nowhere.
He was driving on Highway 82 one night when he collided with a power cable pole at an intersection. Allen was charged with driving under the influence. It was his first offense — and his last, he said, thanks to drug court.
For people like Allen, who are charged with non-violent, often drug-related misdemeanors and sometimes felonies, drug courts are an alternative to jail time. The Columbus Municipal Drug Court, which began in 2007, takes a few dozen participants every year and focuses on rehabilitating them and changing their lifestyles to prevent them from accumulating further charges and getting jail time.
Allen said he drank a lot before he became a participant in drug court, and he didn’t think anything of it. He would drink with friends and drank before and after work. Sometimes he would wake up and drink a beer before breakfast.
“What kind of combination is that?” he wonders now.
It took an accident, a D.U.I. and a year in drug court to help him regain control over his life. Now he does not drink at all.
“All I can say is I appreciate drug court,” he said. “I really do.”
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Drug court participants can be referred by city prosecutors, other attorneys and law enforcement officers. The drug court team then does several assessments to ensure that the offender in question is right for the program, according to Leonardo Dismukes, the court’s coordinator.
Typical participants in the Columbus Municipal Drug Court are people who have two driving under the influences charges or who shoplift to pay for drug habits. The participants have to agree to the program. Dismukes stressed that if a participant does not want to be there or does not think he or she will get anything out of it, then the program will not work.
Based on the participant’s assessments, Dismukes and the rest of the drug court team determine whether the participant needs inpatient treatment, part of which the Mississippi Department of Vocational Rehabilitation may pay for, Dismukes said. Currently there are four participants in the Columbus Municipal Drug Court who are in in-patient therapy.
The initial assessment also determines how long a participant should stay in the program, Dismukes said. The program covers three levels which take 12 months. However, not everyone needs 12 months to be successful, Dismukes said.
Participants are routinely drug tested and must attend five weekly meetings. They meet with the drug court staff, attend group therapy, attend sessions with the group therapist, meet with their probation officer and attend two Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous meetings, Dismukes said.
“It’s intense,” he said. “Not like eating a donut, drinking a cup of coffee.”
Those who lapse are punished, Dismukes added, either by a verbal tongue-lashing by the judge at court in front of other participants or, if it’s a second or third offense, with sanctions such as a weekend in jail.
The staff works with participants during their time in the program, helping them find jobs or encouraging them to continue school.
“We want them to be successful,” Dismukes said. “We’re not basically here to cause them to have a train wreck in this situation. We’re basically here to support them in every aspect. We want them to get a GED, and we can refer them to get a GED over at the Greater Columbus Learning Center or even at (East Mississippi Community College). We want them to get a job so that they can pay for their responsibilities.”
And it works, said Allen, adding that the court changed his attitude toward the justice system. Before he became a participant, he thought judges and law enforcement were only there to make money and put people in prison — he hadn’t realized they would also help people.
Allen found that the 12-step program and group therapy were particularly helpful. It was nice to be able to talk to people who have been through the same sort of things he had, particularly since it had been harder to talk to family and friends about certain things since his accident.
“(My family and I) get along real good, everything’s O.K.,” he said. “But that label: alcoholic. When you say that to people, they change on you. ‘I was an alcoholic.’ Regardless of how smart you are, or what position you hold, if you say you were an alcoholic, you see the change in their face … this is why in the 12-step classes … you talk about things that you would never tell anybody. And it stays there … That was a closeness that I didn’t have with my family.”
Those who successfully complete the program are rewarded with a graduation certificate and a dismissal of the charges that landed them in drug court.
But the most important reward for Allen is being able to be there for his family.
“This right here,” he said, gesturing to his 2-year-old grandson sitting on his lap. “He looked at me, he said, ‘Papa?’ I said, ‘What’s wrong, grandson?’ He said, ‘I love you.’ That’s a reason right there to leave it alone.”
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The Columbus Municipal Drug Court has a budget of around $90,000, said Dismukes, who added that it varies depending on the number of participants, who pay participation fees to be part of program. The state gives the court a grant of $50,000, and the city of Columbus gives $25,000. In past years, when the state has had to cut funding to the program, the city has covered everything, Dismukes added.
Others in the state’s justice system have pushed for drug courts throughout the state as an alternative to sentencing non violent drug offenders to prison, which Dismukes says is already overcrowded.
“Mississippi is number one in incarceration in the nation,” he said.
In 2013, it cost over $9,000 to incarcerate a prisoner for one year, Dismukes said. Rehabilitation is about $1,900, according to Dismukes.
The Columbus Municipal Drug Court has a recidivism rate of around 11 percent. In 2012, out of the 40 graduates in the drug court, only five have reoffended.
If the success rate were 100 percent, it wouldn’t be worth doing, said Municipal Judge Marc Amos, who presides over the Columbus Municipal Drug Court. It’s supposed to be hard for people. They want to be sure they’re taking on the people who really need help.
Amos will step down as the drug court judge in 2016 because he is taking a position with the newly-elected District Attorney Scott Colom, who served as a prosecutor with the city drug court. In November’s session of drug court, Amos told the participants that his leaving was “really bittersweet.”
“I have loved this job more than any job I have every had,” he said. “It is the most rewarding job I have ever had bar none.”
“(There’s been) this move for drug courts and alternative sentencing and something other than prison,” Dismukes said. “This is the answer. This is it.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Judge Marc Amos presides over Columbus Municipal Drug Court recently while drug court coordinator Leonardo Dismukes speaks to participants. “(There’s been) this move for drug courts and alternative sentencing and something other than prison,” Dismukes told The Dispatch. “This is the answer. This is it.” Photo by: Luisa Porter/Dispatch Staff
