As a herd of almost 50 people shuffled through Onondaga County Drug Court security this afternoon, two women sat waiting for their names to be called.
"Are you nervous," Lori asked her friend Robin. "Yeah," Robin replied. "Don't be," Lori said. "What's the worst he can do, cuss at you and put you in jail?"
Syracuse Drug Court began in 1997 as a way to reduce the number of people jailed for non-violent felony or misdemeanor drug charges. The program offers defendants a rehabilitation program as an alternative to punishment for charges held against them.
While Judge Jeffrey Merrill didn't cuss at Robin, he did send her to jail for the next two weekends. "You've been here long enough that you know you have to be honest," Merrill said to Robin, referring to her recent relapse.
"Bulls**t," Robin muttered as she left the courtroom.
Throughout the proceedings, Lori made negative remarks about Merrill. But when her turn came, she was congratulated for her hard work. Without another word, she left the courtroom smiling. Lori and Robin were among 49 offenders, some of whom received applause for staying clean and others who were sent to prison.
With six out of ten people staying clean, the program is having a positive outcome, Kim Kozlowski, coordinator for Syracuse Drug Court, told a group of student reporters afterward.
While he admits to taking a direct approach in his court room, Merrill makes no apologies for his tough love. "It's like being the father of an enormous dysfunctional family," he said. "For a lot of people, I'm probably the first person that cared anything about them."
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