Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes honored 80 graduates of his Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) program in the ceremonial courtroom of Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn. Denise E. O’Donnell, commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services, gave the keynote address. This year’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year Award was presented to Alfred A. Isaacs.
From this graduating class, there are some remarkable stories. Prior to entering the DTAP program, some of the graduates were not only using drugs but they were selling drugs as well. Some of the offenders committed other crimes to support their drug habits. The graduates have all made incredible strides to overcome their drug addictions and turn their lives around. Two of these individuals spoke about how the program changed their lives. Albert Allen and Carrie Booker-Searcy shared their stories of addiction and recovery.
For Allen, drinking beer led to cigarettes, which led to marijuana, which led to hard liquor, which then led Allen to become a heroin addict by the age of 20. In order to support his habit, he sold crack cocaine. In 2002, Allen’s wife died of a heart attack, leaving him to raise their 12-year-old daughter on his own. Their daughter lost a sober parent and had to rely on her heroin-addicted, drug-dealing father for support.
Allen continued to sell drugs while his daughter was in school. This lifestyle caused Allen to acquire 49 arrests prior to coming to DTAP. He never participated in a drug treatment program before DTAP, but realized that he needed a change. Life was getting harder. DTAP offered Allen a chance to change his life and opened doors that were once closed.
Samaritan Village was the residential program that Allen attended. He received help from family to raise his daughter and now after completing DTAP, he has a steady job delivering medical products for a pharmacy. Allen now says, proudly, that “Life is good.”
In 1985, Booker-Searcy saw a popular TV commercial for a Manhattan hotel and decided that she had to visit New York City. She expressed this to the man she was seeing at the time and shortly after graduating from Cleveland State University with a BS in business, as a gift, the same man treated her to what was supposed to be a one-week trip to New York City.
Booker-Searcy arrived in New York City, was soon seduced by the 42nd Street late night action and never went back to her home town of Cleveland. Little did she know that her generous friend was a heroin addict, who soon pulled her into his lifestyle. The college graduate incurred scores of arrests including four that led to state sentences.
When she was arrested, yet again in 2006, and was offered DTAP, she considered it divine intervention. She realized that she had an addiction. She decided to make a change in her life and entered into residential treatment at Samaritan Village. While there, she took full advantage of its resources by entering a staff training program and regularly seeing the on-site therapist who was instrumental in helping her deal with her past issues of abuse. She no longer needed the drugs to ease the pain.
Today Booker-Searcy works as a case manager at the Samaritan Village Van Wyck facility where she has a caseload of 18 clients. She is very happy with her life today; she has her own apartment and she feels like a productive member of society, none of which would have been possible without DTAP.
Booker-Searcy is also looking forward to another graduation now. She will be receiving a certificate from the Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies (CASAT) this October which will allow her to advance in her field.
Every year, thousands of offenders commit drug crimes or other non-violent offenses in order to feed their drug habit. DA Hynes created DTAP in 1990 based on the belief that addicted defendants would return to society more capable of resisting drugs and crime after receiving appropriate treatment than if they had spent a similar amount of time in prison at twice the cost. They would be able to resurrect their lives.
This diversion program, which is recognized as one of the nation’s most successful, provides residential drug treatment to drug-addicted, non-violent, repeat offenders, under a deferred-sentencing model. Participants enter a guilty plea and receive a deferred sentence that allows them to participate in a drug treatment program, usually for about 24 months. Those who successfully complete the program have their charges dismissed. Those who fail to complete the program are brought back to court and sentenced to prison.
“I agree with the critics of the Rockefeller drug laws that it makes no sense to simply warehouse nonviolent drug abusers in state prisons. But rather than relaxing the prohibitions against drugs, the penalties against their use can serve the constructive role of encouraging addicts to opt for treatment,” District Attorney Hynes said. “DTAP gives nonviolent offenders an opportunity to change their lives of addiction and crime into lives of hope and promise.”
In doing so, DTAP, now in its 18th year, has reduced recidivism rates of its graduates by half. Since the program began in 1990, there have been 1110 graduates. An analysis of the savings realized on correction, health care, public assistance and recidivism costs combined with the tax revenues generated by the DTAP graduates reveals that diversion to DTAP has resulted in economic benefits of $44.2 million dollars per the 1110 graduates.
Eighty-seven percent of the class is comprised of men; 13% are women. Their average age is 40. Prior to treatment, 53% of the employable graduates were working. By the time these graduates completed treatment, 98% were working in jobs that include clerical positions, maintenance workers, truck drivers, counselors, construction, food service and messengers.
The majority of the class is from Brooklyn. But there are also other graduates from The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.
These graduates received treatment at 19 residential therapeutic communities, including Daytop Village; Phoenix House, Samaritan Village, Veritas, Damon House, Argus Community, Pride Site, the Lower Eastside Service Center (Su Casa), Odyssey House, Serendipity, and Greenhope Services for Women.
