Hift latly ®ar Brel
Project Turnaround Gives
First-Time Drug Offenders
Second Chance at Living
BY CHARLEEN GRAHAM
STAFF WRITER
After several months of planning the
Chapel Hill Police Department, in con
junction with the district attorney’s office,
recently began anew project that will pos
sibly decrease the number of repeat drug
charges tried in the county court system.
Project Turnaround, which officially
started in January of this year, is a one-year
program in which first-time, nonviolent
drug offenders are given a chance to re
ceive drug treatment and have their charges
cleared, said the program’s director, Bill
Cozart. Participants are given an opportu
nity to steer away from a common pattern.
When drug offenders do not receive sub
stance abuse treatment, they often return
to commit the same or similar drug of
fenses once they’re out of jail, Cozart said.
A participant in the program who was
charged with first-time cocaine possession
said the project has given him a chance to
turn his life around and stay out of jail.
“I was originally pretty reluctant about
entering the program, but am now really
glad I have this second chance,” said the
participant, who remained anonymous
under the program’s privacy guarantee.
The participant has been in the program
since March and now just attends the
weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
The participant said the NA meetings
were important in drug rehabilitation, be
cause the group is such a strong support
system. The participant maintains a full
time job, working between 45 and 55 hours
a week and said that keeping busy with a
job had also helped to focus on life.
Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl
Fox said the main goal of the program was
“to provide drug dependency treatment for
first-time drug offenders so that they are
not so likely to repeat the same offense.”
A minimum of four weeks in the pro
gram is spent in drug treatment. Partici
pants meet three times a week, for more
than three hours each meeting. There they
receive group counseling by two certified
substance abuse counselors.
One meeting out of the week is done
with the local Narcotics Anonymous chap
ter, and participants are taught the group’s
TRACT
FROM PAGE 1
The Planning Board looks at the impact
on the community as a whole, such as the
environmental and transportation effects.
Based on the land-use plan, they then sug
gest a zoning, Rody said.
The University administration and the
Board of Trustees feel that they have given
the town assurances that they will not
build prematurely on the undeveloped land,
said Wayne Jones, UNC’s vice chancellor
for business and finance.
“The University feels it has no need to
rezone the property until its use has been
determined,” Jones said. After all of their
assurances to the town, Jones believed the
Board ofTrustees would be unhappy about
a premature zoning reaction by the town.
“In general, I don’t view this as a hostile
maneuver on the town’s part to do this
rezoning,” council member Mark Chilton
said. The town would merely be exercising
its lawful authority and acting responsibly,
and the action is post-mature, rather than
premature as Jones expressed, Chilton said.
Town council member Pat Evans said
the rezoning would be inappropriate at this
time.
“I think that three years ago it was post
mature, but now we are entering a joint
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philosophy of substance dependency. They
also meet and talk with fellow substance
dependants who often act as support for
each other. After the minimum four weeks,
individuals come back for at least two
more meetings.
Cozart said the project was originally
designed for those individuals charged with
first time drug possession or use charges.
Participants of Project Turnaround en
ter the program upon an agreement with
the district attorney. They are required to
complete a period of drug treatment, and
to participate in and pass random urinaly
sis tests, Cozart said.
If they are not high school graduates,
they must either remain in school to com
plete their degree or get a GED. If they’ve
already graduated, they must seek and find
full-time employment, he said.
If participants comply with all program
requirements for six months, they go back
to court, and their name is removed from
the court docket. However, the person is
required to continue participation in the
project for another six months and main
tain contact with the program director,
Cozart said.
If for any reason the participant fails to
comply with the requirements of the pro
gram, his name is put back into the court
docket and the process begins over again,
he added.
After completing a year in Project Turn
around , clients can then have their charges
expunged. The project is geared mainly
towards those with felony offenses, but
first-time misdemeanor charges can be
dropped, too, Cozart said. He said the
program had 41 active participants, ex
ceeding the amount originally expected at
the beginning of the project in January.
Cozart said he was hoping the county
would provide the necessary funds to con
tinue the program after its two-year start
ing grant from the Governor’s Crime Com
mission ran out.
The county received $64,000 from the
commission and matched 25 percent of
that to start the program, Cozart said. The
project employs two full-time staff mem
bers and is expected to spend approxi
mately $12,000 annually for drug treat
ment costs, he said.
planning process with the University,”
council member Pat Evans said. The Uni
versity would not take the chance of ruin
ing their relations with the town by build
ing a high-rise building on the land now,
Evans said.
“We have received assurances from
them; it’s now our time to do the same,”
she said. The rezoning would be a state
ment of mistrust of the University, she
added.
There was no protest petition filed by
anyone from UNC against the rezoning,
town council member Joe Capowski said.
The deadline for the petitions was last
Wednesday.
“We do recognize that this would be a
temporary rezoning, and we look forward
to working with the University to make
permanentrezoningplans,” Capowski said.
The southernmost part of the property
is the other section to be rezoned and is the
only portion of the area that is developed,
other than the airport and the town’s Pub
lic Works-Transit facilities.
A complication to the issue is that part
of the property lies in the Joint-Planning
Transition Area, where Chapel Hill shares
jurisdiction with Orange County. Mem
bers of the council questioned the town’s
right to rezone the land that lay in this area
of the property.
FEATURES
Students in Limbo Linger Around Chapel Hill
STACEYMEWBORN
STAFF WRITER
The results of the 1993 Employment
Survey elicited by University Career Ser
vices show that 64.7 percent 0f1993 gradu
ates were employed full time and 22.3
percent continued their education.
However, many UNC graduates find
themselves lingering in Chapel Hill, har
nessed somewhere between these choices.
A common example of this type of gradu
ate is the aspiring medical school student.
Ryan Wanamaker, who graduated from
UNC in May with a bachelor’s degree in
biology, found himself in this position af
ter not being accepted by any of his poten
tial schools. Many are forced to delay then
plans for whatever reason, he said.
He said being on the waiting list was
positive but that it was also inconvenient
because your life was put on hold.
Wanamaker, who graduated Phi Beta
Kappa, applied to five medical schools and
hoped to be accepted for this fall.
Unable to carry out his original plans,
Wanamaker opted to take the year off,
schoolwise. He waits tables at Grady’s
restaurant and lives in Chapel Hill. “I can’t
SENIORS
Applying to Graduate Schools
in Arts & Sciences
Attend
The Graduate School Forum
Monday. September 26
Room 208, Student Union, 4pm
for
INFORMATION on the
APPLICATION PROCESS, GRE S,
ESSAYS, and LETTERS of
RECOMMENDATION
Sponsered by the Graduate School and
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in Arts and Sciences, 310 Steele Building
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imagine any place I’d rather be,” he said.
Although Wanamaker encourages
medical school applicants to attend di
rectly out of undergraduate school, he has
turned this transition into a positive expe
rience. He said he had gained a sense of
adult responsibility, maturity and focus.
Not doing schoolwork for a year is also a
nice break, he said. However, it is difficult
knowing what you really want to study
and not being able to do it, he said. “This
year is solidifying my desire to go to med.
school,” he added. “It takes patience."
Wanamaker’s biggest complaint about
staying in town is dealing with the habitu
ally asked question, “Didn’t you graduate
already?” He said that he senses an alien
ation from much of campus life. “You're
not really part of the group,” he said.
Ashley Parker, who also graduated in
May, with a degree in chemistry, found
himself in a similar situation. He said wait
ing for the decisions from medical schools
as late as May had inhibited his search for
alternatives for the ensuing year.
After job hunting during the summer,
Parker accepted a position as a research
assistant with the University. His interest
in this work and improving his medical
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school application are benefits, he said.
Aside from the many research opportu
nities in the Triangle, Parker found many
reasons for residing in Chapel Hill. “I
wanted to be in this area because I’m ac
customed to the environment,” he said.
This eliminates a transition period nec
essary to get used to anew setting, he said.
He said he continued to enjoy the social
environment Chapel Hill provided on the
weekends. Parker vie ws this year in Chapel
Hill, not necessarily as a transition stage,
but as a pursuit in which he has a vested
interest. “You shouldn’t think of it as a
stepping stone; you won’t get anything out
of it, ” Parker said. “I’m not going to regret
this year at all. There are things you can
draw from every experience in life.”
Brian Downs, who graduated Phi Beta
Kappa from UNC in 1994 with a degree in
history, also aspires to attend medical
school. He said staying in Chapel Hill was
a matter of choice. His desire to get real
world experience before going to school
motivated his decision to wait a year be
fore applying to medical school, he said.
“Once you start medical school, you’re
locked in for four years,” Downs said. He
said that diving into the job field would
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increase his appreciation for being a medi
cal school student.
Downs has taken advantage of job ex
periences through internships around the
Triangle. He is employed at an insurance
company, where he has endured working
40 hours a week. Working has reinforced
his decision to go to medical school.
"Living in Chapel Hill offered me the
best of everything,” Downs said. “Intern
ships offer temp work, and there’s the op
portunity to go back to school. Plus, my
friends are here that’s another bonus.”
Like Wanamaker and Parker, Downs
sometimes feels like a student but is aware
of the alienation from undergrad life. See
ing students with backpacks on Franklin
Street increases that feeling. “You’reoutof
that routine but still close to it.”
Downs is not disturbed by being in a
state of limbo. However, he advised that
taking a year off was not the best decision
for everyone. “A lot of people get stressed
out and are a little insecure,” he said.
Belonging to a specific group offers a
certain sense of security, Downs said. In
situations such as his, “You’re not quite a
student and not quite a professional, but
halfway in between.”
5