Traffic light enforcement camera equipment was once perched at the intersection of Dayton Boulevard and Signal Mountain Road in Red Bank.Spread Drug Court success to mental health
On Monday, the 8-year-old Hamilton County Drug Court celebrated its 100th graduate – a nearly 30-year addict who officials said had been arrested on at least 96 different charges.
Nothing had changed the course of Jonas Richardson Jr.’s life and energized his own willpower to overcome drugs until he began his journey through drug court two years ago.
Program coordinator Elaine Kelly has said the program, begun in 2005, has functioned on a shoestring budget, funded with grants that are renewed each year. Participants also funded their own rehab by paying just over $97,000 in court fees and fines and more than $30,000 in child support payments as of late 2012.
Program participants must work or perform community service, and in 2011 they did more than 1,000 hours of it while attending group meetings, check-ins with their sponsors and taking both planned and surprise drug tests.
It isn’t easy or pretty, but it has worked for 100 people here. It has changed the lives of those people and their families. It has cut crime, and that means the public, too, has benefited.