美国国家公共电台 NPR To Save Opioid Addicts, This Experimental Court Is Ditching The Delays

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

America's opioid crisis continues to devastate¹ families and communities across this country. It is also taking a toll² on first responders and the criminal justice system. One city decided³ to take a new approach. Buffalo⁴, N.Y., has created the nation's first opioid intervention⁵ court to try to fast-track treatment for addicts⁷ who commit crimes. Now some are looking to Buffalo's experiment as a possible model across the country. NPR's Eric Westervelt paid a visit.

UNIDENTIFIED COURT CLERK: Caitlyn Stein - C.R. 6786617 - scheduled for a report.

ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE⁸: There's about 10 feet between Judge Craig Hannah's courtroom bench and the wooden podium where a defendant⁹ stands to be arraigned¹⁰ here in Buffalo City Court. But for 26-year-old Caitlyn Stein, it's been a long, tough 10 feet...

CRAIG HANNAH: This is your first day back. Good to see you.

CAITLYN STEIN: Good to see you.

HANNAH: We just have to do that before and after picture.

WESTERVELT: ...Ten feet where Stein began to walk back 10 years of crippling heroin¹¹ addiction¹², burned bridges with family and friends and waves of lies and thievery to support her drug habit. Today is her first day back before Hannah after a month of inpatient treatment in Buffalo's new opioid intervention court. She shows the judge a folder¹³ full of certificates earned during her recovery.

HANNAH: Oh, you've also been a positive peer mentor¹⁴.

STEIN: Yes.

HANNAH: How many days clean is this?

STEIN: Twenty-nine today.

HANNAH: Keep up the good work. That's awesome¹⁵.

STEIN: I will.

WESTERVELT: This experimental opioid court is an iteration of the traditional drug court, where an addicted¹⁶, usually nonviolent offender¹⁷ is channeled into recovery as an alternative to jail and a chance at a reduced sentence. But it can often take weeks or longer to get a defendant into a detox or inpatient treatment center. And with opioid addicts, that delay can prove fatal. But here, if the defendant wants to get clean, Judge Hannah immediately hits pause on the criminal charges to get the person into treatment as fast as possible.

HANNAH: Right from arraignment¹⁸, we put the clock on hold. We turn off the court reporter. Everything's off the record, and we're talking about getting you help. And once we get you help and get you stabilized¹⁹, we put the criminal case back on the calendar.

WESTERVELT: But back on the calendar of the city's long-established drug court, with a chance to get the criminal charges reduced or even dismissed. When Caitlyn Stein first appeared before Judge Hannah, she was in handcuffs, chains and an orange jumpsuit - rail thin, dark circles under her eyes, heroin track marks on her arms. Today she looks alert, dressed in jeans and a casual top. And she now gets to approach Judge Hannah's bench, to walk those 10 feet to talk to him face to face.

HANNAH: How do you feel?

STEIN: I feel awesome. I feel like me again.

HANNAH: You know you have to see me every day after you go to treatment?

WESTERVELT: In that moment, Hannah seems more like a friend than the black-robed judge who could order Stein or other opioid court defendants²⁰ to jail if they bolt from treatment. The program includes random²¹, regular drug testing. So Hannah knows fast if someone's using again. And participants are channeled into one-on-one and group counseling and other support services. There's also a nightly curfew. Defendants have to check in at 8 p.m. and ping their location to a court staffer.

And after 30 days of inpatient detox, participants enter a month of outpatient treatment. And every weekday at 11 a.m. during that treatment, every recovering addict⁶ has to check in with Judge Hannah to sit in court, look him in the eyes and just talk.

HANNAH: I just need you to be honest with me so I can help you.

WESTERVELT: A middle-aged²² man is called up for his daily check-in. He says he's heading off to group therapy and then a job fair.

HANNAH: You test is negative, so keep up the good work.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yes.

HANNAH: And it looks like you're getting back on track.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yes. I thank God for this at the end of the day - for you, the courts.

HANNAH: If you don't put eyes on them and have that face-to-face continual contact and also to reassure²³ them that we're actually working and caring for them, I think a lot of people get lost, and they fall off in their recovery.

WESTERVELT: The necessity for an opioid intervention court underscores the severity of the nation's overdose and addiction crisis. According to preliminary CDC numbers, overall drug overdoses killed some 64,000 Americans from February 2016 to February of this year. It's estimated 6 in 10 of those deaths was caused by opioids. Here in Buffalo - Erie County, N.Y., is averaging an overdose death every day.

JOHN FLYNN: We couldn't wait three or four weeks until we got the individuals into a treatment program or plan...

WESTERVELT: John Flynn is Erie County's district attorney.

FLYNN: ...Because if they didn't get it right away, they were going back out on the streets, shooting up fentanyl and dying.

WESTERVELT: D.A. Flynn says he and other law enforcers here enthusiastically support the court. It's just dumb, he says, to keep arresting and jailing repeat offenders²⁴ who are, first and foremost, addicts in need of help.

FLYNN: If an individual doesn't get the help they need, they are going to be a perpetual criminal. They're going to be committing petty larcenies²⁵ every day. They are a revolving²⁶ door within our criminal justice system, and the police don't want that.

WESTERVELT: The court is less than 6 months old, so it's too soon to draw any big conclusions. But so far, the numbers show that Buffalo may be on to something. Of the roughly 140 participants, only four have washed out so far. And no one in the program has died. Part of the opioid court's success so far might be the fact that Judge Hannah knows firsthand about addiction. In his youth, Hannah says, he struggled with cocaine²⁷. He's able to tell defendants, I've been there.

HANNAH: I know that you can have every intention on trying to stay clean. But when that demon²⁸ calls at 2 o'clock in the morning and no one else is around, everyone slips up from time to time. You can't lock up an addiction because the addiction is still there.

WESTERVELT: In the court's hallway, recovering addict and criminal defendant Caitlyn Stein tells me if Judge Hannah hadn't given her a second chance, she'd likely be in prison or dead.

STEIN: I've always wanted to be clean, but I've never gone to rehab. I've been in jail a couple of times, but it's only been clean for a period of time. So this has completely changed everything for me.

WESTERVELT: You know, I was taken by your comment to the judge today, I feel like myself again. I mean, after 10 years, that must feel pretty good.

STEIN: Yeah, yeah. It feels good to, like, laugh - like, belly²⁹ laugh. And I cry. But it's OK. Like, I'm OK with crying now, where before I was just a zombie, I guess, is the best way to put it. And I don't ever want to go back to that.

WESTERVELT: A few days into her outpatient treatment, a day after this interview, Stein failed to show up for her daily check-in with Judge Hannah. She bolted - again. A warrant's been issued for her arrest. And the next time Stein sees Hannah, she's likely to be in handcuffs, back behind that wooden podium 10 feet from his bench and, in the court's eyes, back to day one. Still, a court official told me, we'll be here for her when she wants to get sober.

Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Buffalo.

(SOUNDBITE OF SAXON SHORE'S "REPLACEMENT DRIVER")

1 devastate   

v.使荒芜，破坏，压倒

参考例句：

• A few days before,a fire had devastated large parts of Windsor Castle.几天前，温莎城堡的大部分被一场大火烧毁。
• Earthquakes can also cause tsunamis,which devastate coastal regions.地震还引发海啸，它直接破坏海岸地区。

2 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

5 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

6 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

7 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

10 arraigned   

v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 )；控告；传讯；指责

参考例句：

• He was arraigned for murder. 他因谋杀罪而被提讯。
• She was arraigned for high treason. 她被控叛国罪。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

12 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

13 folder   

n.纸夹，文件夹

参考例句：

• Peter returned the plan and charts to their folder.彼得把这份计划和表格放回文件夹中。
• He draws the document from its folder.他把文件从硬纸夹里抽出来。

14 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

15 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

16 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

17 offender   

n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者

参考例句：

• They all sued out a pardon for an offender.他们请求法院赦免一名罪犯。
• The authorities often know that sex offenders will attack again when they are released.当局一般都知道性犯罪者在获释后往往会再次犯案。

18 arraignment   

n.提问，传讯，责难

参考例句：

• She was remanded to juvenile detention at her arraignment yesterday. 她昨天被送回了对少年拘留在她的传讯。 来自互联网
• Wyatt asks the desk clerk which courthouse he is being transferred to for arraignment. 他向接待警员询问了马宏将在哪个法庭接受传讯。 来自互联网

19 stabilized   

v.（使）稳定， （使）稳固( stabilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The patient's condition stabilized. 患者的病情稳定下来。
• His blood pressure has stabilized. 他的血压已经稳定下来了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

20 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

21 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

22 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

23 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

24 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

25 larcenies   

n.盗窃（罪）( larceny的名词复数 )

参考例句：

26 revolving   

adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The theatre has a revolving stage. 剧院有一个旋转舞台。
• The company became a revolving-door workplace. 这家公司成了工作的中转站。

27 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

28 demon   

n.魔鬼，恶魔

参考例句：

• The demon of greed ruined the miser's happiness.贪得无厌的恶习毁掉了那个守财奴的幸福。
• He has been possessed by the demon of disease for years.他多年来病魔缠身。

29 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。