OXFORD – The courtroom is just below the standing-room-only threshold when Judge Andy Howorth begins proceedings. Each group called up quickly files past a court official, handing in a piece of paper. Many submit sealed vials of liquid for testing.

As each group appears for review, assuring the judge that they’ve been behaving, he gives encouragement or scolding.

“All right, y’all keep it up,” he tells one group who are making good progress to overcome their addictions.

“Remember what I said,” Howorth counsels another. “You’re never out of the woods, even though you’re doing great.”

One group he singles out for praise to the entire audience of participants and their families.

“They’re the class pets,” he tells the crowd. “We don’t have to remind them of anything. They don’t forget to bring their papers. They’re role models and softball coaches and insurance agents and other things.”

He’s not hesitant, however, to warn a woman with consecutive “hot” drug tests that she could be heading for prison without redoubling her efforts.

Later, he marvels at her neglect of the opportunity that drug court offers.

“There are only two ways out,” he says. “If you get kicked out, you’re going to have to serve penitentiary time, or you succeed and graduate. There’s no middle ground.”

Starting over

The drug court is a “last and best chance,” Howorth said, for people charged with or on probation for non-violent crimes who are addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs to avoid prison. For some, it’s a chance to get a clean record at the end of the process.

“I could make a whole drug court just on probation violators, but it’s really geared toward first offenders,” Howorth said. “Those are the people who are eligible in some cases to have their record expunged.”

Drug court programs focus on rehabilitating drug offenders, including those with felony DUI convictions, “by treating the disease of addictions,” according to the state Administrative Office of Courts.

Friends on the bench in other districts – Ann Lamar, who is now an associate justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court, and Circuit Judge Jim Pounds from the 1st Judicial District, particularly – hounded Howorth about starting the court, and when Robert Elliott became the district’s third circuit judge, Howorth was determined to carve out the time. The court started signing up defendants in spring 2008 and held its first sessions in January 2009.

“I’ve become a zealot,” Howorth said. “It’s happened to Jim Pounds, too, and he’s an old jaded prosecutor.”

The 3rd District Court covers Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Lafayette, Marshall, Tippah and Union counties.

The District 1 drug court also is up and running. It serves Alcorn, Itawamba, Lee, Monroe, Pontotoc, Prentiss and Tishomingo counties.

Because they must be in Oxford twice a week for drug testing, most drug court participants so far come from Lafayette County.

Good for both

Defendants enter the drug court by agreement between their defense attorney and the prosecutor’s office. Once in, they may go through detox programs, stay in counseling, attend “12 step” group meetings and, if they are not employed, find and keep a job.

Once they get “clean,” they move to the second phase, where the countdown begins on the 36 months of success that allows them to graduate.

Proponents say although the program has its failures – 10 to 20 percent, nationally – its successes make it a good deal both for offenders who want to change and for the citizenry at large.

Oxford Police Chief Mike Martin endorses the second chance for certain offenders.

“Some people need to go to jail, and that’s all there is to it,” he said. “There are others that with some help can go a better direction.”

When still state auditor, now-Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant issued a report on the potential of drug courts. He found that by reducing the need for new prisons, each 500 drug court participants would save the state $5.4 million annually.

What Howorth likes most, though, is shepherding people through this court so they won’t end up again in his other one.

“We’re not going to change thousands of people’s lives here,” he said. “But we are going to change a lot of them.

“This is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life, without a doubt.”

Contact Oxford Bureau reporter Errol Castens at (662) 281-1069 or errol.castens@djournal.com.