Paulding County Common Pleas Court Judge Tiffany Beckman knows that sometimes all that troubled people need is for one other person to believe in them. For many of the participants in Paulding County Drug Court, that one person is Judge Beckman herself.
Established in October 2015, Paulding County Drug Court is a specialized docket that allows the judge to draw from many resources to help people who have been incarcerated on drug or related charges to overcome their substance abuse and addiction problems.
A participant in Drug Court benefits from the pooled resources of several local agencies: the court, law enforcement, the prosecutor, Job and Family Services, and substance abuse and mental health providers.
“It takes all those pieces and parts so they don’t fall through the cracks,” says Judge Beckman. She describes the program as a sort of “super probation” where people are released from jail and given a lot of support and tools to help them while they are under probation.
Judge Beckman explains that the idea for the program began in June 2014, when judges and officials throughout the state of Ohio were invited to the Ohio Supreme Court Judicial Symposium on Opiate Addiction.
Then Governor John Kasich spearheaded the effort to find new ways to help communities that were impacted by the scourge of addiction. With the message that prison populations were exploding and the state was not going to be able “to arrest its way out” of the crisis, communities were challenged to tackle the problem locally by developing multi-faceted programs that addressed the problems of addiction at the individual level.
Judge Beckman describes the conference as “life changing.” She came back and called a meeting of all the Paulding County agencies that could be potentially involved. Knowing that change is hard, she asked, “Who hates this idea?
“Everyone agreed that we needed to do something,” recalls the judge. Within a year, all the parties came together, and Paulding County had plans in place to establish its own Drug Court Program.
“I was torn about what the right answer is—the old way or the new way. I am a happy medium person,” says the judge. This program allows her to give convicted felons a chance because they are ultra supervised, and a return to incarceration is never off the table.
Admittance into the program is at the judge’s discretion. She explains that the process is “more English than math.” She does not have an empirical scoring system that qualifies people for Drug Court. Instead, she looks at an individual facing release from incarceration and considers their prior history and their willingness to verbalize that they want to live their lives differently.
The judge says that sometimes that is a person who is young and new to the system, or it could be an older, repeat offender.
“I ask people, ‘Are you going to be 50 years old and still wearing that jumpsuit?’ Often they say they are just ‘tired.’ I wish I had a bell to ring when I heard that word because it usually means they are ready.”
Judge Beckman, who has been the Common Pleas Court Judge for 10 years, strives to strike a balance between punishing and helping people. During Drug Court sessions, she fosters a firm, fair and friendly atmosphere for the participants who number between 10 and 20 at any given time.
She conducts Drug Court differently than regular court, choosing not to wear her robe or make those present rise when she enters. She often talks directly to participants about her own problems and triumphs, highlighting that we all have common struggles relating to child-rearing, jobs, paying bills, and managing our free time. And we also need to acknowledge our successes, in sober ways, of course.
“I tell personal stories because I want to be real to them,” says the judge. “I want it to feel more like support and less like court.”
Participants pass through four phases in the Drug Court program, with increasing freedoms in each phase. Drug testing and counseling are supervised by Westwood Behavioral Health. The judge credits Westwood’s Drug Court Coordinator Andrea Ricker and counselor Ashley Tope with helping many individuals succeed in the program.
When participants phase up, they are required to fill out paperwork to explain why they should advance, and Ricker often makes them go back and write more, especially about their feelings.
The judge admits that Phase 1 is very hard for participants, but often during Phase 2, she sees a switch turn on for them where they have more clarity and the program becomes easier. They work on the basics like getting their driver’s licenses back, obtaining insurance, and working on custody and visitation issues with their children.
Drug Court sessions are held twice a month. Participants who have tested negative for drugs and attended all of their required treatment appointments are considered 100% compliant and can get something out of the judge’s reward basket, which is filled with $5 gift cards, candy, beef jerky, body lotion, and similar items. The judge also chooses a recipient of the “Good Attitude Award,” and that person gets an extra reward.
Wanting to focus on the positive at each court session, the judge asks participants to tell her something good that has happened to them since she last saw them. If they fail to come up with something, she reminds them that the question is not a surprise and waits for an answer. At some point in their Drug Court experience, many will say that their “good thing” is that something bad has happened to them, and they coped without using drugs.
It takes at least one year to go through the program. Judge Beckman writes a personal letter to each graduate, which she reads at his or her graduation, often wiping away tears as she recounts the graduate’s journey through Drug Court from her perspective.
“I’m a crier,” she laughs every time as she fans her face with paperwork. She presents each graduate with a restaurant gift certificate and an inspirational plaque with a quote from C. S. Lewis, which reads, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
Graduates are given a standing ovation and treated to a celebratory lunch afterwards.
Thirty-eight people have graduated from Paulding County Drug Court in its over five-year existence. One of those has died of a drug overdose. Five or six others have relapsed and returned to prison. One participant graduated, relapsed and was re-admitted into the Drug Court program.
Arie Barajas, who was the first ever graduate of Paulding County Drug Court, was re-admitted into the program and is now in Phase 3. “Judge Beckman has helped me more than she will ever know. I know this is my last shot at a better life,” says Barajas.
“This program is very intense, and if a person takes it serious there is so much support and opportunity,” she adds. “If it weren’t for this program and Judge Beckman, I know without a doubt I would be either dead, in prison or an active drug user facing death.”
Judge Beckman believes that offering the program is still the right thing to do even with the failures. Statistics show that half of people who have been in recovery for two years relapse.
“Just cleaning them up doesn’t fix their problems,” says the judge. “There are so many layers to addiction, including loss and trauma. If I can give them a year of sobriety, I can show them a different way to live.”
She points out that she has shown 38 people a year of living clean. “That is 38 years of sobriety,” she says.
Judge Beckman says that she wants to see Drug Court become popular. “I want it to be a club that people want to join. A climate of recovery is my goal. I want this community to be a place where recovery is cool.”
