PORT ANGELES — Tony Drake was either incarcerated or on parole from ages 12 to 42.
He got sober on Aug. 25, 1998 and entered Clallam County’s first adult drug court in 1999.
Ten years later, Drake, now 53, is one of 200 success stories from the rehabilitation program for chemically-dependent offenders.
“This is the longest period of time in my life that I have not been in front of a judge with a charge hanging over my head,” said Drake, who spoke at the 10-year anniversary of the Clallam County adult drug court on Thursday.
“I’ve got over 30 years of my life locked up in bars because of drugs and alcohol. It’s not a fun life.
“I can stand here today and say that I’m an upstanding and productive member of the society that I live in.”
Provided a vision
Angie Silva, the first graduate, struggled to hold back tears as she reflected on a decade of sobriety.
“Before I got here I was miserable, you know, so shameful and so angry,” Silva told a crowd of nearly 100 who packed a courtroom at the Clallam County Courthouse.
“[Drug court] totally changed my outlook of them against me.”
Tina Baker, another original graduate, now works with juveniles in the drug court system.
“Drug court provided me rules, boundaries and limitations, and a vision and a dream,” Baker said.
Drug court is open to people charged with nonviolent, nonsexual crimes and crimes not involving firearms.
Participants undergo a rigorous substance-abuse treatment program under court supervision for at least one year.
If successful, criminal charges are dismissed.
Jeffco court in 2003
Through a $100,000 grant from the state Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, a DUI drug court was added in 2005.
Formed in 1997, Clallam County’s juvenile drug court is the oldest in the Pacific Northwest.
“We are here today in celebration of more than 200 success stories,” said Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams, who started the drug court and still leads it.
“It is a court program that has proven to be cost effective, crime reducing and, more importantly, life changing.”
Jefferson County also has drug court system. It was formed in 2003.
“For me, personally, drug court has been the most rewarding part of my professional life,” Williams said.
“I have never met a drug court judge who does not say the same thing.”
Williams got the idea of forming a drug court in Clallam County while attending a judicial conference in 1995.
He was moved by a speech he heard from Judge Carl Haas about a Florida-based drug court in Portland.
Decent when drugless
The issue was a personal for Williams. He knew four Clallam County defendants who died of drug overdoses between 1993 to 1995.
“They were decent people when they were away from their drugs,” Williams said.
Williams was also moved by letters from friends and family of out-of-control addicts.
He said the criminal justice system isn’t helping chemically-addicted people by sending them to jail or imposing fines.
“By definition, that is not going to work,” Williams said, because the definition of addiction is a compulsion to use despite adverse consequences.
In 1996, Williams and other county officials sent a grant application on pink paper to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The application was endorsed by all governments and law enforcement agencies in Clallam County.
The county won the three-year maximum of $600,000 to pay for training, treatment and implementation of the juvenile and adult drug courts.
“When the federal grant ran out, the state of Washington stepped up,” Williams said.
“The Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, DASA, worked with us to ensure continued treatment funding.”
Clallam County’s adult drug court was one of the first in the nation for a rural county.
At first, opposition
Preston Kayes has coordinated the program from its inception.
“Without qualification, I can tell you that the success of our program is and has been greatly dependent on our drug court coordinator, the drug court czar,” Williams said.
“Every day, Preston brings great wisdom and even greater passion to this program.”
In the 1990s, drug courts were not widely accepted.
“Judge Williams, however, recognized the potential and began to promote the concept,” said Clallam County Superior Judge George L. Wood.
“He was vehemently and publicly opposed from different corners and was, on occasion, even personally ridiculed. Yet he stood his ground. He accomplished something huge for this county.
“Hundreds of juvenile offenders and hundreds of adult offenders have been involved in drug court.
“Not everyone has succeeded. But those who have are changed people. They are no longer slaves to the drug addition.”
Sheriff was skeptical
Wood and Judge S. Brooke Taylor preside over Clallam County drug court when Williams is absent.
“There was so much about it that was unorthodox that I could see how it was going to be a long time to its acceptance,” said Chris Shea, a former Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney who championed the drug court and campaigned on it in 1998.
Shea said the zero-tolerance approach to addicted people leads to a revolving door of jail and treatment.
“There was a huge, huge cost involved,” Shea added.
“It wasn’t working, but nobody had the guts to say it wasn’t working. It was too political.”
Many in the county were skeptical, including Sheriff Bill Benedict, who was a deputy in the late ’90s. It didn’t take long for Benedict to see the results and change his mind.
“It’s about accountability, partnerships and maybe a non-traditional way of looking at how we handle justice,” Benedict said.
“I really like the fact that drug court has a beginning, a middle and an end. We track people through it. And most of the people, I’m happy to say, succeed.”
Sobriety’s ripple
Benedict said addicts in the traditional judicial system have an “absolute dismal rate of success.”
The 15 drug court graduates who attended Thursday’s ceremony were asked to stand and say when they graduated. Most knew the exact date.
“We like to say that for every person that goes through drug court, they probably take at least one other person with them to sobriety,” Williams said.
“Some of the people here today have taken many people into sobriety with them.”
Williams credited the attorneys, judges, county staff and treatment centers and scores of volunteers who have contributed to the program.
“County commissioners, then and now, have always supported this program to the utmost and we appreciate that support,” Williams said.
Before he turned his life around, Drake was sentenced by Williams more times than he can remember.
“Four-and-a-half years ago, Judge Williams gave me a life sentence,” Drake said.
“That life sentence is with that pretty lady sitting right back there. Judge Williams performed my wedding for me.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com