River Forest resident and former judge Lawrence Fox retired from the bench in 2010, but last month he was back in court. The law may be his profession, but helping people, Fox would say, is something of a calling and you never retire from that.
“This is about the criminal justice system treating you as a person instead of as another case or another disposition,” Fox told the six graduates of Cook County’s Drug Treatment Court at the Fourth Municipal District Courthouse in nearby Maywood.
“Somewhere along the line,” Fox said, “you’ll appreciate the fact that the criminal justice system is trying to convince you that we really care about you.”
The county court system’s drug treatment court is one of its numerous specialty courts — including ones for veterans, mental health treatment and prostitution — that emphasize alternative means of punishment over the meting out of conventional justice.
For 12 years, Lawrence presided over the first Rehabilitation Alternative Probation, or RAP, program, established at the county’s main criminal division court at 26th and California in 1998. Since then, alternative treatment courts have been established within all of the county’s municipal divisions and more than 3,300 people have participated, according to county court officials.
“Larry Fox has been at the forefront of the introduction of specialty courts in the Circuit Court of Cook County,” noted Chief Judge Evans in 2012, when he appointed Fox director of specialty courts.
During the May 26 graduation ceremony, Fox looked on as all six of the treatment court program’s graduates rejoiced at learning from Judge Ramon Ocasio III, the court’s presiding judge, that all of their outstanding court fines and probation fees would be waived and their cases dismissed.
“It’s going to be like this never happened,” said Ocasio. “In drug treatment court, we have a presumption of mercy.”
The six graduates were all leaving the program after two years of close monitoring and intense treatment — starting with 120 days at one of the county’s residential treatment programs and subsequent months of weekly drug testing and monthly appearances before a judge. Each participant’s progress is closely tracked by a team, including a probation officer, a public defender, a prosecutor and at least one judge, among other officials. Fox said he meets frequently with Ocasio to discuss each defendant.
“There’s a lot of brainstorming,” Fox said. “We’re always thinking, ‘Well, what can we do or say? What are the next steps? Are we giving this person everything they need? Are they trying hard enough to take advantage of what they’re being offered?”
Ocasio said he likens his role to that of a mentor or life coach, the process being premised more on empathy than strict jurisprudence.
“I’m constantly thinking about what issues are they facing, how they’re doing, have they found a job or are they involved in job training,” Ocasio said. “These are people who are dealing with all sorts of challenges.”
In order to be eligible for the treatment program, defendants have to be willing to participate, admit their drug addiction, and their convictions must be non-violent. Fox said he personally supervises around 19 eligible individuals in his post-retirement.
“The typical participant is in his mid-40s, has been using for almost 10 years, and is a repeat offender with felony cases,” Fox said. “A really good percentage of them have been in the penitentiary before, so this program is really their last, best hope. And that’s really the point. We want to target the most challenging cases because the research says that they respond much better to what we do than people who don’t have as extensive criminal records.”
According to county data, the RAP program has a 40 percent completion rate. And recidivism rates for graduates who have completed the program after three years have been cut by 84 percent.
Gary Anderson diverges from Fox’s profile, but not by much. He’s only 28, but his 12 years of drug abuse have aged him, both physically and emotionally, beyond his years. The Northlake resident had entered into the treatment court program after taking a plea deal.
He did his 120 days of sobering up before enrolling in more extensive drug treatment programs at Safe Haven Foundation, a Chicago nonprofit. He went to welding school. He got a job at a manufacturing company. He had a son.
“I’m now clean and I support my son and my girlfriend on my income,” Anderson said. “The program taught me that, in order to stay sober, I have to change the people I hang around and keep going to support meetings. I’m not going back to that life I once lived. Nope.”
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com