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Faces & Voices in the News
Drug Court graduate serves as inspiration to others in Savanna
Alana Wolfe, with Drug Court help, has beaten her addictions, reclaimed life's promises
Jan Skutch
Savannah Morning News
December 2 , 2010
Five years of off-and-on abuse of painkillers left Alana Wolfe addicted and lost in a Chatham County jail cell.
Two years of intense scrutiny in Savannah-Chatham County Drug Court led her to sobriety and back to her calling as a registered nurse.
"Without it I don't know where I would be today," Wolfe said. "I probably would be dead. It definitely saved my life."
Wolfe, her nursing license back in hand, is program director of social detox at Recovery Place Inc., helping others who like her are trying to escape addictions that ruined their lives.
The court, which Chatham County Superior Court Judge James F. Bass Jr. started in 2001, has graduated 144 people through its intensive two-year program that requires tough love from the court and challenges for the clients.
The court's effectiveness has been proven by the number of participants who get clean and sober, Bass said.
"We just see changed lives," he said.
It's not easy
Participants are required to attend activities five days a week, get jobs, undergo frequent drug screenings, pay fines and attend several Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous sessions each week.
Failures to comply incur sanctions, including jail time, and often a stern talking-to from Bass.
Often successful completion of the course results in the criminal record being removed.
It is part of the court system's efforts to use therapeutic courts to treat the symptoms outside of jail where traditional models have failed.
Tough love
"I did not like him at all the first six to nine months," Wolfe said of Bass and his demands. "He was hard on me."
During her time in the court, Wolfe relapsed twice, earning her jail time from Bass.
When she finally agreed to his recommendation for the Women's Program at Recovery Place, she found her footing to recovery.
"From the day I walked in that door I was ready," Wolfe said. "I never looked back. I started learning about myself."
Wolfe, 45, said she never used drugs until a recurring physical ailment required the high-powered narcotic pain killer Oxycontin prescribed by a physician.
Her need led her to forge more than 100 prescriptions for the drug and created a need for cocaine, taking one for the other.
"I knew people who were addicts," she said, adding she had little sympathy for their plight.
"You could just stop this mess if you wanted to," was her reaction.
She soon found it was not so easy.
Arrest
Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics Team agents finally knocked on her door in 2005, charging her with forgery of prescription drugs and possession of cocaine.
That cost her 10 months in jail, where she was unable to get a bond. She got a five-year probated sentence, which was revoked when she was found using again.
That sent her back to jail, but also prompted Drug Court officials to take her on as a client, she said.
Even then she could not stay straight, relapsing twice in the early goings.
Her nursing license suspended and a felony record behind her name, Wolfe could not find meaningful work.
Finally, Frank Barker, CEO at the Recovery Place, "took a chance on me" in November 2008 at the social detox program.
New start
She graduated from Drug Court in December 2008 and finally got her nursing license renewed in January.
She continues to work with a professional group of medical providers who have had "work trouble" because of addictions. She faces a three-year monitoring by licensing officials.
She is working toward her goal of becoming a certified addiction registered nurse over the next two years.
And Wolfe is nurturing a December 2009 marriage performed by Bass to a fellow Drug Court graduate.
Her own problems have given her a unique perspective in working with others seeking sobriety.
"I know what they're facing," she said, adding her clients feel more comfortable and trusting "because you've been there."
"It's all about the little things."
If you go
-- The newest class of Savannah-Chatham County Drug Court will graduate at 3 p.m. Dec. 8 at the Coastal Georgia Center for Continuing Education, 305 Fahm St.
-- The Drug Court's alumni group will host a Recovery Celebration Dinner at 6 p.m. Dec. 9 at Skyler's Restaurant, 225 E. Bay St. Those graduates who wish to attend should call Bonnie Gricco at 912-644-5920.
DRUG COURT FUNDING
The Savannah-Chatham County Drug Court has received almost $180,000 in grants for new programs and training.
Those could grow to more than $390,000 over the next three years.
Highlighting the funding is $110,674 to place an anger management and trauma treatment program at drug court for its clients, said Brooke Rogers Brooks, Drug Court administrator.
The funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services substance abuse and mental health division targets anger management assessment and treatment.
It also will fund trauma care for those clients who have suffered sexual, physical and mental abuse.
The $68,374 Bureau of Justice Assistance grant covers training for six drug court members at the National Drug Court Institute as well as program supplies.
It also will fund GED and vocational rehabilitation, community supervision and incentives for participants making program goals, Brooks said.