Erica Gillan was facing the possibility of a decades-long sentence in prison on multiple charges of drug possession when she was offered a chance to participate in Jefferson Parish's drug court.
Gillan, the mother of a 12-year-old, accepted the offer, and over the next two and a half years, she received intensive, outpatient treatment for her substance abuse disorder, all under the court’s supervision.
“Each phase of my adult life was a different drug: ecstasy, heroin, weed, crack, meth and a few DUIs in between,” Gillan said. “When you heard my name, you immediately thought of alcohol and drugs.”
On Tuesday, Gillan ushered in a new phase in life as a graduate of the Jefferson Parish drug court — and “a woman in long-term recovery.”
“I needed this program to work because nothing else ever did,” Gillan said, standing in a graduation robe before a panel of state district court judges.
Perched alongside those judges was Jefferson Parish Council member Marion Edwards, who spearheaded the creation of Jefferson Parish’s drug court — the first in Louisiana — while serving as a district court judge in 1997.
Designed to treat non-violent offenders’ underlying addictions instead of throwing them in prison, the program has given thousands of Jefferson Parish residents a chance at redemption.
And thanks to Edwards’ advocacy on the Parish Council, the program is on track to expand its reach.
With millions of dollars expected to flow into Jefferson Parish from opioid epidemic lawsuit settlements, the Parish Council earlier this month agreed to issue up to $17 million in bonds to construct a new building to house the 24th Judicial District's specialty courts.
'No place to grow'
At the moment, the court's case management, treatment and compliance services are housed at the Salvador Liberto Building on 2nd Street in Gretna. But the space isn’t well-suited for its needs.
With an open floor plan and cubicles, case workers often struggle to maintain privacy when having intimate conversations with participants, said Melissa Carter, administrator for specialty courts at the 24th Judicial District.
They've also outgrown the building. When Carter first took over in 2017, Jefferson Parish's specialty courts — which include several other probation programs — had between 85 and 100 participants.
Now, there are closer to 700 participants.
During that period, the Louisiana Supreme Court, which oversees state drug courts, expanded who was eligible to participate, allowing defendants at a "low-risk" of reoffending with a "high-need" for substance abuse treatment to take part.
Previously, you had to be "high-risk, high-need," Carter said.
With the larger caseload, the court’s drug testing lab explored the option of getting a bigger machine to process more tests per hour, but it wouldn’t fit in the space available, Carter said.
“The space we have now is limited,” Carter said. “We have no place to grow.”
A new life
At Tuesday’s ceremony, Gillan read aloud her petition to the court to graduate, ticking off the ways drug court helped her get back on her feet.
As part of the program, Gillan was randomly tested for drugs three times a week and received cognitive behavioral therapy twice a week.
“Coming to group (therapy) regularly taught me structure and routine,” she said. “Having a curfew taught me punctuality.”
Participants are required to pay $200 monthly to the courts to stay in the program, though payment plans are available. Gillan is still paying her share down and credited it with helping her budget for utilities.
In an interview, Gillan said without drug court, she’d “probably be dead.”
Instead, she’s reconnected with her daughter, has a steady job as a waitress, and a few weeks ago, started a position counseling others at Avenues Recovery Center in Metairie — a facility she was once banned from as a patient for being unruly.
In a letter submitted to the Parish Council in support of the bond issuance, judges from the 24th Judicial District wrote that “treatment courts are a proven option to reduce recidivism, restore health, reunite families, increase public safety, and reduce costs for the criminal justice system.”
'Godfather of drug court'
Since leaving the bench, Edwards has tried to attend as many drug court graduations as possible. On Tuesday, he commended the graduates for their hard work.
"And I just want to take a moment to remind you that this is really not the end, this is the beginning," he said. "And I will tell you that you're going to face temptations in your life, and hopefully you have learned what you need to know through this program so you can resist those temptations."
"I'll always be rooting for you," he added.
Speaking from the dais following Edwards' remarks, Judge June Berry Darensburg recalled how difficult it was in the 1990s to marshal public support for drug court, lauding Edwards as the “godfather of drug court”
“It was hard, because back then, no one wanted to hear about putting people in drug court,” she said. “All everyone wanted to do is lock individuals up. And Judge Edwards said, ‘No, there’s a better way to do this’.”