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Judge Christopher Kelly, who heads the Washita-Custer County Treatment Court, with two program graduates at their July 3, 2019, graduation. Photo courtesy of Sarah Ivy.
Yanet Rodriguez started down her dark path at a very young age. Growing up as one of eight children and being raised by a single mother in California, Yanet fell into the gang and drug scene early. She started smoking methamphetamine at the age of 12. In an attempt to break her out of that lifestyle, her mother packed up the family and moved to Oklahoma when Yanet was 17, settling in Clinton.
Shortly after moving to Oklahoma, Yanet got pregnant, and for the better part of two years was sober. Throughout her pregnancy and the first year of her baby’s life she managed to stay clean, but then in 2001 she found her way into Clinton’s drug scene and started abusing meth again. In 2009 her world started to fall apart. Her now ex-husband was jailed on drug charges. She lost her house and found her children and herself out on the street with no way of supporting themselves. She did the only thing she knew how to do to survive, she started selling drugs.In 2012 she left her children in her mother’s care and surrendered completely to her addiction. Three years later, after taking the jump from smoking to injecting meth, she was arrested. She went into a six-month rehab program. As the program neared completion she had the option to either leave or remain for a bit more time. Convinced that she was ready, she chose to return to her life - but it was the same life that brought her there in the first place.
And the results were predictable, within four months she was right back where she started, but with additional legal troubles.
She went back to the same place, she was still maintaining her relationship with the same man, and she fell right back into her old habits. She was arrested again in 2017, on three felony and two misdemeanor counts and found herself facing up to 16 years behind bars.
Kimberly Taylor started on a different path. Born and raised in Weatherford, she was an honor student before she started experimenting with meth at the age of 18. Two years later she she had progressed to shooting up and gave up custody of her two-yearold son to her mother after her first arrest.
After a 2014 conviction, Kimberly was sent to prison. After six months she was free from incarceration, but not from her addiction. She went right back to the same situation and found herself, like Yanet, right back where she started. She was busted again Jan. 23, 2016, a date she remembers as the date she started down the path of sobriety.
Both Yanet and Kimberly made the decision to apply for, and then plea into, the Washita-Custer County Treatment Court program. And that, they both said, is where they turned their lives around.
“Treatment Court is a diversion program for non-violent offenders with substance use disorder,” said Washita-Custer County Treatment Court coordinator Sarah Ivy. “Rather than traditional incarceration, participants abide by a strict performance contract and enter into a plea agreement with the state. They are required to complete the program in order to get a reduced sentence, deferment, suspended sentence, or dismissal.”
The Treatment Court program is five phases, with the program lasting from 18 months to three years. The Washita-Custer County Treatment Court participants are first screened by the district attorney’s office and then by the treatment court coordinator for eligibility. Ivy said the local court only accepts new participants who are considered to be both high risk and high need, meaning they are both likely to re-offend if intervention does not happen and psychological assessments indicate a need for treatment to interrupt the substance use disorder.
The program begins with intense supervision, which is weened down over time. Supervision includes frequent drug testing, treatment sessions, and self-help meetings. Participants are also required to complete a minimum of four hours of volunteer/community service time each week. The program also requires participants to find gainful employment and a safe recovery environment while in the program. Participants also sign a waiver of their Fourth Amendment rights, which makes them subject to search at any time by law enforcement, with or without cause.
While it may sound harsh, the structured environment is what helps to create the program’s remarkable success. As of July 2019, 405 participants have been accepted into the Washita-Custer County Treatment Court, and 75 percent of those have successfully completed the program. Every single one of those program graduates were employed when they completed the program. Statewide, only two percent of Fiscal Year 2017-2018 were unemployed as of July 2019. Nearly 40 percent of those entering the program were unemployed. Participants monthly incomes increased from an average of $738 to $1,725, and only 15 percent were still lacking their high school diploma or GED, compared to 23 percent when entering the program.
The most telling success marker lies in the families saved by treatment court. Upon entry, only 32 percent of program participants had their children with them. At graduation, that number rises to 61 percent.
“Treatment Court keeps families together, treats the substance use disorder, and provides accountability and gives people a chance to try out a life outside of what they may be living,” Ivy said. “It provides a chance to grow and change.”
It’s also a much more cost-effective option. Data provided by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse services shows that treatment court diversion saves the taxpayers an average of $150 to $160 per participant, per day.
For Kimberly, that success includes regaining custody of her children. For Yanet, she’s working to rebuild those relationships and sees her kids at least every other weekend.
Yanet is still in Clinton, but is firmly on the path to recovery. She’s working a full-time job, a job she’s held for the past two years, and she’s finally developed a relationship with her mother that she’s never had before. She doesn’t yet have custody of her kids, but, as she put it, “I’m not giving up.” She also spends two weekends each month doing jail ministry with The Edge Church and trying to help other people write better endings to their own stories.
“Drug court made me what I am today,” she said. “Before drug court I had no structure in my life. I didn’t have the tools to live a good life. I didn’t know a lot of things about life. I really think about what I did before drug court. I thought my only choice was to keep living the life I’d always lived.”
Kimberly is back in Weatherford, but she’s put the past solidly behind her and doesn’t go near the people or places of her past. She works full time detailing cars and also helps manage her husband’s lawn care business. She’s regained custody of her children and her life is looking up.
“It truly did change my life,” Kimberly said. “I’ve been on probation, I’ve been to prison. Drug court was consistent, they stayed on me, they gave me the structure I needed. Drug court cleared my head long enough for me to decide to make the change. It’s been the start of the best years of my life.”
“Treatment Court keeps families together, treats the substance use disorder, and provides accountability and gives people a chance to try out a life outside of what they may be living,” Ivy said. “It provides a chance to grow and change.”
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“Treatment Court keeps families together, treats the substance use disorder, and provides accountability and gives people a chance to try out a life outside of what they may be living. It provides a chance to grow and change.”
--Sarah Ivy
Washita Custer County Treatment Court Coordinator