There was a graduation held in Carter County on Thursday, April 8.
It wasn’t held in a high school gymnasium or any of the other places where a graduation usually is held. It was held in the Carter County Courthouse.
Those in attendance were there to see 35-year-old Lacy Petrekovich, the second graduate of the 37th Judicial Circuit’s drug court. In January, Lacy’s partner, 47-year-old Jayson Passmore, was the first one to graduate from the program.
Emotions ran high in the courtroom as Lacy described her journey and how thankful she was for the opportunity she and her partner were given to change their lives for the better.
Many people outside of the courtroom may not have been aware that Carter County had a drug court. Some of those same people may feel that drug courts are a waste of time and instead of giving people another chance, it would just be best to let the courts incarcerate them and be done with it.
Carter County Associate Judge Steven Lynxwiler, who was on hand to give out the graduation certificate to Lacy, was once one of those people. “My reluctance actually stemmed from is my time as a prosecutor,” he said. “We started a Ripley County drug court program when I was a prosecutor there in 2004.
“I felt like it was a hug-a-thug approach and a lack of punishment for people that committed crimes. But as our team developed and we started our program and went to trainings across the country, I realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t that at all. It was helping good people with bad problems.”
Diversion comes as response to drug epidemic
The programs came in response to the growing number of drug offender arrests and prosecutions that began to overwhelm the capacity of the court system in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Drug courts emerged as specialized court docket programs designed to alleviate the burden on a growing jail population. They provided a way for defendants with substance abuse problems to successfully divert drug-addicted individuals away from incarceration and reduce their risk of recidivism.
A little over 18 months ago, Presiding Circuit Judge Steven A. Privette, Associate Circuit Judges David Ray, Donna Anthony, Sandra Brewer, Harvey Allen and Steven Lynxwiler, and a number of community stakeholders established a drug court in the 37th Judicial Circuit.
The requirements of the program are strict and begin with a RANT (Risk and Needs Triage) assessment to determine whether or not the defendant, who must be at least 17 years old, is suitable for the program.
The actual program contains five phases, each one requiring court attendance, treatment, supervision, office visits with a probation officer and a case manager, random drug testing, therapy, community service and extensive life changes.
There are curfews in the first few phases, and participants have to maintain housing and address all their financial matters, which includes working at least 30 hours a week. If they can’t find a job, they have to do 30 hours of community service each week in addition to the 150 hours they have to perform for being allowed in the program.
In short, the program is not easy.
In fact, it’s really hard.
According to Lynxwiler, when confronted with the requirements of the program, some aren’t interested. They would rather go to jail.
“Recently we’ve had two referrals, but once they did the screening, they didn’t want to participate in the program and that bothers me because no matter what may happen to them as far as the punishment goes in a criminal case, the fact remains that the chances of them going to prison are much greater than if they received some kind of treatment,” he said. “I’m not saying ours is perfect, but for what we have, the resources we have to work with here in our county, we’ve been able to do fantastic things with it, truly incredible things.”
A fresh start
Upon graduation from the drug court, the participant has to serve probation. Once they have completed that, they have the opportunity to go before the judge and withdraw their plea. In essence, it’s as if the whole ordeal never happened, and that is beneficial to the participant and the community, according to Lynxwiler:
“Let’s say you go into a job interview. If you’ve got any kind of a felony, arrest or conviction on your record, your chance of getting employment is slim to none,” he said. “One of our national retailers here in town won’t even interview somebody that has a felony arrest on their record when they go there to apply for a job.
“This program not only helps fix an issue with the person and their addiction, but it helps them to become gainful.”
Those who have completed the program don’t have to check the arrest conviction box on future applications.
“There’s no argument about whether something was a conviction or not a conviction and so for our participants it’s a fantastic thing,” Lynxwiler said. “It’s a great thing for our employers, because they get good people working for them. While they may have a past, it doesn’t mean that they’re bad people. They’ll be very loyal employees, very loyal members of the community.”
No dropouts to date
Five people have participated in the drug court and there have been no dropouts. Lacey and Jayson, Lynxwiler said, are shining examples of how well the program works, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t concerns.
“Lacey and Jason had reluctance right off the bat and I had reluctance about how successful they would be,” he said. “But they were very quick to prove me wrong and I think we, as a team, were very quick to prove them wrong.
“We proved to them that we were very serious about all of this and we held them accountable. They are the ones that went to the treatments. They are the ones that had to deal with their addictions, and they’re the ones that have graduated from this program.”
“They are the successful ones. We’ve just helped hold some hands. That’s all we’ve done,” Lynxwiler said, adding, “You get to see that what your team is doing is something right. I’ve never been sure what it is, and I still don’t know what it is, but we’ve done something right.
“We’ve taken a broken family and we’ve helped them to heal and that’s why I have so much pride with them. They’re an amazing couple. They’ve got beautiful kids and it just tickles me that they can all be back together.”
The kids Lynxwiler spoke of are a 6-year-old daughter named Mason, and Lacey’s 12-year-old son Brennan Tatum. Together, this family is navigating their way toward a brighter future, but that’s another story to tell and in an upcoming edition of the Daily American Republic they are going to tell their story.
The Carter County Drug Court will have other graduations, and even though they are, in the words of Lynxwiler, “batting a thousand with their current participants,” there is no guarantee that any of their participants won’t have setbacks and problems. But for now, there is cause to celebrate and try to continue to better serve the community with this worthwhile program.
“That’s the most important thing, turning the lives around for people,” Lynxwiler said. “Just because somebody is accused of doing a bad thing or being a drug addict, using drugs doesn’t mean that they’re bad people. There’s hope for everybody.”