“Before I entered drug court, I was using crack cocaine daily. I wasn’t working, didn’t see my family at all, and was prostituting and using people to get drug money. I spent three months in the county jail before being accepted into the program. I felt totally defeated and hopeless.

When I entered the drug court program, I knew I didn’t want to go to prison. I thought I still could and would use drugs. Several treatments had already failed.  I had every fear of drug court:

What would they make me do?
How long would it take?
Where would I live?
What if I used again?

Drug court was like my new family. I felt the clients and staff really cared. They gave me time and patience and didn’t treat me like a criminal or a bad person. Drug court was definitely an incentive to stay clean because of the sanctions and the alternative – prison.

My life has changed dramatically through the program. I have a good job, self respect, self esteem, good family relationships, new friends, a new outlook, and respect from others, especially my family. I feel like a real person with a real life.”