Drug Court gets a new lease with program grants

For seven years, Judge Beth Heath sought to get the support needed to maintain the Drug Court program after the state pulled the program’s funding. The Comprehensive Opioid Stimulant and Substance Abuse Program (COSAP) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) program both awarded grants to help her with her efforts. The grants total more than 1.7 million dollars.

"We had been operating our court for several years," said Judge Beth Heath. "We didn’t want to shut it down. We started looking for alternatives to be able to continue the court and to have funding to do that."

In 2020, there were 53 referrals out of Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency Court into the drug court program, and six individuals graduated. Part of the grant’s intended use is to uncover why the graduation rate was low.

“What we’re trying to do is work with them to get them clean and to reunite them with their children so that they are a family," said Heath.

The Family Drug Court deal with parents who have substance abuse issues, often who have lost their children in Abuse Neglect and Dependency court because of substance abuse issues and children are in relative placement and foster care.

“House of Hope was mainly for men,” said Pastor Norma Barnes, Manager at Hope Restorations, Inc. “It has been a passion of mine to see the same thing happen for women in the Kinston area.”

The new facilities located at the Hope Foundation has about twelve volunteers to get the house ready, but is actively seeking a full-time house manager, and two to three part-time staff members to help with supervision.

"I’ve been on the bench for 19 years and I’ve held Abuse Neglect and Dependency court, it is my preferred court," said Heath. "Drug court is an extension and I’m trying to help our parents, our children, and keeping families together. I’ve just seen how important it is for a person in my opposition to be part of the solution versus just going in and holding court."