James Hemphill admits he didn’t want to quit using drugs when he first enrolled in drug court. But he said he learned there what his problem was: “It was me.”
“This is the best thing to happen to me in a long time,” Hemphill said Monday during a drug court graduation ceremony at the Leflore County Civic Center.
Thirteen proud graduates from Leflore, Sunflower and Washington counties celebrated Monday with their families, court officials and others who helped them get clean. Those from Leflore County were Larmarion Bethany, Lorna Boyd, Jeffrey Clark, Hemphill, Vernita Liddell, Jarvis Peoples and Oscar Woods.
In lieu of jail time, drug court participants go through a program that includes regular drug tests, treatment, sanctions, incentives and education.
State Rep. Alyce Griffin Clarke, the mother of Mississippi drug courts, was the keynote speaker. She encouraged graduates to show the people waiting to get them in trouble again that they’re not going back down that path.
After the regular program, as many as wanted were allowed to get up before the large audience and speak.
Jeremy Cornelius from Washington County said some thought he was crazy taking an open plea as a habitual offender before the famously stern Circuit Judge Ashley Hines. It could have meant five years in prison instead of three, but Hines allowed Cornelius to enter drug court.
He admits he had some blemishes along the way, but eventually he made it.
There were emotional stories of lives changed. Graduate Tammy Keeling of Washington County said her son told her she has finally become the mother he had always wanted her to be.
The 4th District Drug Court was the just the second fully operation drug court in the state when it was established in 2001 and the first in North Mississippi.
Leflore County Circuit Judge Betty Sanders said they had to fight a perception that drug courts were merely a slap on the wrist for addicts who needed to go to prison.
“But look where we are and look where we have come,” she said.
More than 400 people participated in the program last year, and more than 50 babies were born drug-free, Sanders said. She said drug treatment is as successful as treatments for diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure.
Circuit Judge Margaret Carey-McCray said funding was short early on, but court officials took on the extra duties without pay, and volunteers stepped up.
One of the volunteers was a retired law enforcement officer named Victor Wallace. He showed up for work every day as if he were an employee but never got paid, Carey-McCray said. Even as he got sick, Wallace continued to serve; he died in 2007.
On Monday, the drug court gave its Victor Wallace Service Award to James Payne, an investigator with the Leflore County District Attorney’s Office. Carey-McCray praised Payne for his efforts to mentor young people in need of direction.
• Contact Charlie Smith at 581-7235 or csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
