Good News from a Great Player

The news cycle is usually full of people who get caught using drugs. Occasional politicians and judges and teachers and parents show up, but more often it’s a sports hero or an entertainer who gets busted and then joked about on the Jay Leno show.

It’s especially great, then, to see someone in the news that is helping. Roy Williams, formerly a great football player for Oklahoma University and currently an NFL star with the Cincinnati Bengals, has been doing his bit to educate the public about drug abuse and addiction here in Oklahoma.

Williams is especially letting people know about the option to go to drug court and mental health court here in our state. These programs have provided more than 4600 non-violent offenders with an alternative to going to jail.

"After serving a full sentence, like 3 or 4 years in jail, they are like people leaving prison prone to go back to what they know," Williams said.

According to the Oklahoma government website, "Oklahoma’s drug court programs provide a highly-structured alternative to incarceration for eligible offenders in the criminal justice system….Multidisciplinary teams comprised of district judges, district attorneys, defense attorneys, treatment providers, law enforcement officers, and program coordinators work together increasing participant accountability through intensive substance abuse treatment and judicial supervision... a holistic and individualized approach to treatment is utilized to focus on recovery and improvement in all areas of life. Graduates…have an 86.2% reduction in unemployment rates, an 82.2% increase in monthly income, 23.1% decrease in individuals without a high school diploma, and a 48.8% increase in children living at home."

There are 41 adult drug court programs covering 61 counties. Importantly, the website goes on to state that: “The average annual cost of incarceration in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections is $19,000 per person, compared with the average annual per person cost for drug court participation of $5,000.”

No wonder Roy Williams is spreading the news about this innovative program. It reaches out and actually helps the offenders, which helps their families, which helps their communities, which helps our entire state.