March 31, 2011. Daytona Times.
Tina Gardner says she was in “severe bondage” because of her drug addiction.
The last time she was arrested, she was faced with these options:
• Take three years probation with no help for her problem and risk relapsing and violating her probation and going back to jail.
• Participate in a drug court where she would have to take drug classes and get a drug test every week. She would have to go to Alcoholic Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings and see a judge every week without worrying about being locked up – as long as she did the right thing.
Gardner chose the latter.
“I began praying to God,” she said before members of F.A.I.T.H. (Fighting Against Injustice Towards Humanity) at the organization’s March 14 meeting at Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Daytona Beach.
Credits drug court
While in drug court, Gardner stayed clean of drugs, found a job and discovered that she could also help other people.
“I couldn’t have done it without drug court. They were patient with me in the beginning. I’m glad the intervention was there for me,” she said, then received a standing ovation from hundreds of members of 29 churches who make up F.A.I.T.H.
Responded the Rev. Sharon Dey of Tomoka United Methodist: “We are people of faith. We are called to have a positive impact on our society. When justice wins, God smiles. Efforts will be worth it when justice is done.’’
Dey was one of several speakers at the March meeting, which heard reports from various committees and plans for F.A.I.T.H.’s Action Assembly that will take place at 6 p.m. on April 4 at the Bethune-Cookman Performing Arts Center in Daytona Beach.
Successful program
Organizers of the meeting, which is free to the public, are hoping 2,000 people will show up when they confront elected officials and public workers about doing something to get more funds for drug court and to help the homeless.
“Drug court is very successful. Most people diverted don’t go back to jail. It costs $20,000 a year to house a prisoner in the county jail and only $5,000 to enroll in drug court, said Kathy Bond of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.
“There is a bill before state representatives to increase the number (of people in drug court) and it is “our job to get others to support the bill. Faith moves mountains,” Bond added.
In 2009, Florida received $19 million in federal funds to establish a drug court expansion program in eight counties (Broward, Escambia, Hillsborough, Marion, Orange, Pinellas, Polk and Volusia).
The purpose of these funds is to divert 4,000 people from incarceration over two years and reduce costs by an estimated $95 million.
Taking tough stand
As of mid-November 2010, only 650 people had been admitted to the program when the goal was to have 2,000 served by now. F.A.I.T.H. is asking for passage of a bill that would allow more access to this successful program.
Luke Miller, also of Our Lady of Lourdes, told the March crowd that people with no place to go are being treated as violent criminals
L Ronald Durham, pastor of Greater Friendship Baptist Church. agreed with Miller adding, “Homeless people and being brutalized and criminalized.”
F.A.I.T.H. members believe that it should not be illegal to be homeless.
At the April 4 Action Assembly, F.A.I.T.H. will announce the beginning of the S.A.V.E. (Sentencing Alternatives for Volusia Enforcement) program, which the organization says addresses the unjust and expensive problem of the criminalization of the homeless.
S.A.V.E. support
The S.A.V.E. program will divert misdemeanor offenders that are unable to pay fines and often end up in jail. It is a result of cooperation between F.A.I.T.H., Volusia County criminal court judges, the Daytona Beach Police Department, the Volusia/Flagler Coalition for the Homeless, and Haven Recovery.
All will have representatives present at the assembly to announce their commitment to begin the S.A.V.E. program.
The S.A.V.E. docket would give people an opportunity to resolve certain criminal offenses using alternative methods to pay court costs. Some examples of alternative sentences are completing community service hours or participating in specified programs.
At arraignment on the S.A.V.E. docket, court costs are converted to community service or program participation that has been completed.
There is power in numbers and F.A.I.T.H. is hoping 2,000 people will show up at the assembly to let the invited officials know they are serious.
“Powerlessness is dangerous. “It invites exploitation,” said Durham.
“In the ’50s and ‘60s it was important to build and exercise power during the civil rights movement. We still face injustice today. Are we going to stand by and do nothing? We need to bring corrupted power to its knees. We can’t allow ourselves to be powerless,” Durham added.
He hopes that by 2015 the participation number grows to 4,600 so the organization can have even more influence.
“This year we are going to build our power…. All demographics, races, ages, all walks of life. We kneed to keep building our power. This year we will turn heads in city halls, Volusia County and Tallahassee,” Durham concluded.
F.A.I.T.H. has a 10-year history of mobilizing large numbers of people around issues of injustice, The record includes a cleanup of countless drug hotspots throughout the county, the implementation of a reading curriculum called Direct Instruction in 13 elementary schools across Volusia County and re-establishing a drug treatment program in the county jail.
