Drug Court

The mother of our kids-in-care is getting ready for Drug Court. That's a program that lasts a year or more with intensive drug testing, rehabilitation, and training. It's a program where they plead guilty to one or more charges, and the judge puts off enforcement of sentencing and releases them into a treatment program for drug rehabilitation. If they graduate from the program, the charges are all dropped.

This is a positive step, although she'll be facing some difficult issues. It's easy to think clearly and plan while in the forced detox of jail. The hard part is actually following through after release when the temptations are always at hand. Then there are the issues of needing a place to stay, and a job.

Explaining all of this to children is tough. How do you tell kids ranging from 5 to 10 years old that their mother is in a program that will last at least a year before she can get out from under a list of felony charges? The timeframe is mindboggling to kids that age, and I don't have any idea how to meaningfully describe the charges in anything better than vague terms.

The kids deserve to know how things are going, but it's a delicate balance to describe things in a way that will mean something to each child. I can't tell them they'll be staying with their parents eventually, because I have no idea if that's true. I can't say they'll overcome their addictions. What I can say is that their parents love them very much, that they want to overcome their problems, and that it's good to write encouragements to them.