MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - A new program is offering help and redemption for the mothers of children born addicted to drugs.
Ora Boler is the latest of this sort. She was charged with Reckless Endangerment after giving birth to a child who tested positive for cocaine.
Prosecutors say the answer for these women is not to simply lock them up and throw away the key, but to help them kick the habit and be mothers.
Here's how the program works: after a mother is charged with Reckless Endangerment, social workers determine if she's fit for this new program. If she is and chooses to get involved, that's when the real work begins.
After 18 months of classes, counseling and drug tests, charges against Ora Boler will be dropped and the mother could be reunited with her children.
Shelby County's District Attorney Amy Weirich and Drug Court Judge Tim Dwyer unveiled the program, called Born Addicted. They say getting mothers off drugs is the goal.
“Sure we can send them out to the Penal Farm and send them out to the Tennessee Department of Corrections and they can do their time, if that's what the sentence is, but if we, particularly with drug addiction, if we don't address that issue we see it time and time again at 201 Poplar with people's rap sheet, they're going to be back,” said Weirich.
Right now seven women are in the program. Born Addicted costs a little more than $3,000 a year for each mother, much less than the $30,000 thousand dollars it would cost if they were behind bars.
“We're primarily concerned about saving people's lives, but the jail cost savings are simply unbelievable,” Dwyer said.
While the program is a second chance for women society would rather write off, Weirich said the women involved know the stakes are high.
“Make no mistake, if they don't work the program, if they don't do what the drug court's strict criteria requires them to do, there's prosecution,” she said.
Born Addicted is a pilot program, so it could be scrapped if it's not successful.
Drug Court Judge Tim Dwyer said up front he doesn't expect every drug addicted mother to finish the program, but he's hopeful they'll have more success stories than failures.
