Behind the curve

Yet these courts have found the going hostile in Texas, where only four counties--Dallas, Travis, Montgomery, and Jefferson--currently maintain them, each using methods different from the others. "Texas has always been a law-and-order state," Carol Todd says. "Its answer to handling drug addicts has been to build more prisons."

Although former Democratic Gov. Ann Richards, a recovering alcholic herself, showed some interest in drug-treatment courts, after Gov. George W. Bush was elected, Republicans seemed more focused on having judges dispense justice, not social services. "Drug-treatment courts have always been too touchy-feely for this state," says Beaumont Judge Vi McGinnis, who presides over the oldest drug court in the state. "But now that the prisons are getting overcrowded again, the Legislature is suddenly interested."

Just this year different branches of state government have begun to educate themselves about drug-treatment courts. A spokesman in Lt. Gov. Rick Perry's office says Perry is "intrigued with the concept of expanding these courts." State Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander has asked existing courts to present whatever statistics they have compiled so her research analysts can study their feasibility. And the Texas House Committee on Judicial Affairs is holding hearings to determine whether legislation that would fund drug-treatment courts statewide should be introduced in the next session.

While Creuzot is grateful for all the interest, he needs an infusion of legislative dollars fast. DIVERT court is currently supported by federal and county grants totaling $600,000, but these sources may not last. "We have to come up with funding to stabilize the court between now and 2001, or we are out of business like Tarrant County," Todd says.

On July 28, the House Judicial Affairs Committee will be in Dallas, taking testimony on drug-treatment courts, among other matters. Creuzot has asked Ruby Bouie to testify, and she has agreed to appear. Bouie already knows just what she's going to say: "If it wasn't for the DIVERT court intervening in my life, I'd either be using or dead."