Terrebonne moves on; Bourgeois season ends
November 7, 2006
Bad driving ends with drug arrest
November 9, 2006(Posted Nov. 7, 2006)
The Lafourche Parish Drug Treatment Court is asking local businesses to become involved with its vocational program as well as the Friends of the Lafourche Drug Court Foundation.
According to Drug Court Administrator Fred Duplechin, nationwide records show that two-thirds of the people arrested were on some form of illegal drugs, which prompted the judicial system to create the drug treatment court.
“It would cost the taxpayers between $20,000 and $50,000 per person, per year to house those types of offenders and the capital cost of building a prison cell can be as much as $80,000,” he said.
“The drug treatment court program will cost $4,500 annually for each offender,” Duplechin said. “This makes the drug court extremely cost effective to the taxpayers and it frees up limited jail space for the more serious crimes.”
State District Judge F. Hugh “Buddy” Larose said at a recent Lafourche Chamber of Commerce Rise and Shine Breakfast that Lafourche drug treatment court was established in 1999 as an alternative to traditional methods of treating substance abusers. He said it is a voluntary program that targets the non-violent drug abusers.
“Most of the program participants are middle class, hardworking people who have let drugs take over their lives,” Larose said. “They seek our help, because they have no where else to go.”
According to the judge, the participants must fit the drug treatment court program criteria prior to being accepted in the program. He said eligibility includes not being convicted of a violent offense or having a history of dealing illegal narcotics.
Larose said the four-phase program has many milestones participants must pass before they can return to society as a fully functioning individual. He said the program can take 12 to 19 months to complete.
“During that time the participants must agree to abstain from any substance abuse and attend all counseling session,” Larose said. “They also have to submit to drug testing, attend 12-step meetings, attend all court sessions and report to their case manager regularly.”
“The participants must also gain employment and maintain it,” he said, urging local businesses to consider hiring program participants.
Duplechin is in charge of the daily operations of the drug treatment program, and is responsible for the all aspects of the treatment program including detoxification, alcohol/drug education, counseling and aftercare.
Duplechin said the drug program has served more than 400 people locally. It is currently serving more than 150 people with many on a waiting list. Twenty-seven-year-old Joshua Robichaux, of Thibodaux, can testify that the drug treatment program really works.
Remembering his past, Robichaux said getting caught with an illegal substance changed his life. Once the judge gave him a five-year sentence prison sentence, the Thibodaux man said he knew he had to do something.
“Before drug court my life was a wreck,” Robichaux said. “I knew if I would have went to prison, I would have done my five years and been out doing the same thing or worse.”
Robichaux is in his third phase of the program, Duplechin said. He has maintained employment and kept out of trouble for more than two years.
Duplechin urges the businessmen to help young men in the program like Robichaux by serving as vocational program sponsors or a Friend of the Lafourche Drug Court Foundation.
According to Duplechin, the Friends Foundation is a non-profit organization developed to support the Lafourche Parish Drug Treatment Court program. He said it operates as a separate funding entity. Its primary purpose is to provide supplementary money for the development of the drug court program.
“Presently the Friends Foundation is working to secure funding for the development of an Alumni Club, a vital component of the drug court program,” said Duplechin. “It is essential to the overall long-term success of the drug court program.”
The Alumni Club provides an organized network to support the continued recovery of all drug court graduates, Duplechin noted. Because chemical dependency is a lifelong disease and as with all chronic illness, relapse is often a risk, the judge said.
“All drug court graduates are encouraged to become active in the Alumni Club, which is designed to provide support for their continued sobriety and on-going recovery from substance abuse and/or dependency,” Larose said.
A concern many employers share concerns the graduates relapsing, but the judge said 50 percent of all graduates stay clean after completing the program.
“When the business community hires employees, they don’t know what type of background they come from,” Duplechin said. “When hiring someone from our program they know exactly what they are getting … an individual that is trying to make a change for the better.”
Larose knows has an unique way of motivating participants to stay clean and sober. “Judge Larose has the ability to paint pictures of how the person’s life will be if they clean up their act or if they don’t clean up their act,” Duplechin said.
Ribochaux said it was torture when he first had to face Larose. The drug court enrollee said he would try to hide things from Larose, but failed many times. Now he is happy to go before the judge because he has something to be proud of n sobriety.
“Judge Larose is a good judge, he is fair and always does the right thing,” Robichaux said. “I am glad I made the decision to join drug court, it changed my life.”
If a person wants to change for the better then drug court is a way to make that change because there are only two roads to travel in the drug scene: imprisonment or death, Ribochaux added.
For more information on the drug treatment court program or to join the Friends Foundation, contact Duplechin at (985) 446-1970, extension 10.
