New program puts former offenders on better path

Trying to hold back his emotions, James Smith thanked everyone around him Monday afternoon as he celebrated earning his commercial driver’s license.

It’s a feat that almost didn’t happen.

Smith is in a drug treatment program at the Community Supervision Center in Poplar Bluff, said his parole officer, Cheryl Hicks, and until recently was a daily drug user.

James Smith and his mother, Brenda Moore, look at Smith’s new CDL license he earned recently through a joint program from the Community Supervision Center and Three Rivers College.DAR/Paul Davis

“When he came into the CSC, he was battling heroin and methamphetamine. He’s been a daily user since 2016,” Hicks said.

“He’s in our new treatment program called ICTS (Improving Community Treatment Success), and he’s got a whole team of people supporting him, even after he’s done with the class,” Hicks said.

Today, five weeks later, Hicks said, Smith is clean.

James Smith shows off the cake he was given Monday during a ceremony to celebrate his graduation from Three Rivers College’s new CDL license program.DAR/Paul Davis

“We’re just really proud of him. He’s overcome a lot,” she said. “To go from that, to being clean, to having a career …”

A second, unidentified graduate of the program, Hicks said, was unable to attend Monday’s celebration.

The commercial driver’s license program, Hicks said, is a new partnership between the CSC and Three Rivers College.

“They funded the whole program specific for our type of clients,” Hicks said.

“We started our first class in February working with Probation and Parole. It’s a five-week program,” said TRC program coordinator and instructor Chuck Hower.

Candidates begin the program, Hower said, with little to no knowledge of the truck. The first week of the course is spent in a classroom and later lessons “go through pre-trip inspection, backing, parallel parking, anything the state requires for a CDL.”

The program is intense, Hower noted, adding, “it’s not something you can slack off on and get through it.”

In a hasty moment on the first day of class, Smith almost decided the program wasn’t for him.

“He came in on the first day, and after about two hours, threw his hands up and walked out of the class. He said ‘I’m not doing this. I’m tired of it,’” recalled CSC activity coordinator Darrell Davis.

“Me and Cheryl sat down with him and told him his options,” Davis said. “Not only was this going to affect today, but it was going to affect the future.”

With that, Smith had a change of heart.

“He decided he would go through with the program and came in and apologized to everybody,” Davis said.

Not only did he return to the class, but Smith told Davis he was going to be the first to graduate from it.

And, he was.

“It is the most wonderful program that I’ve ever attended,” Smith said. “I have been able to get my CDL and receive my license.”

It wasn’t easy, Smith said, but he persevered.

“You definitely have to have some willpower and want-to,” he said. “When I first started out, I didn’t know I was ready for the change, but now I’m just elated with happiness.”

Smith said at times there were struggles, but pressing on was “more about the determination and having a good attitude. This is the first thing in my life that I’ve set my mind to and wanted to complete. I wanted to make my mom proud.”

“It’s a very big accomplishment,” said Brenda Moore, Smith’s mother, as she celebrated earning his CDL with him.

Moore noted her son “experienced a lot of trauma in his life, and for him to come this far, it’s a miracle to me,” she said.

“He’s got a drive to succeed. He just needs somebody to give him some structure,” Davis added.

Today, Smith already has job offers, and he remains positive about where his life is heading.

“I have some ideas on what I want to do with my future, but I know I don’t want to look back,” he said.