About Dawn's story

Chapter three of six: Four months after being sentenced to Fayette County Drug Court, Dawn Nicole Smith finds out her husband is leaving, and, at 22, she’s pregnant with their fourth child. Addicted to pain pills since her teens, she keeps relapsing. Not surprising, given that just two of every five criminals in Fayette County Drug Court’s rigorous program of counseling and supervision manage to stay clean. Yet Kentucky has spent $56 million on drug courts, which will serve every county by year-end, hoping to counter these statistics: 50 percent of domestic-violence and 70 percent of child-abuse cases involve substance abuse. Dawn has suffered both. She and the court have allowed two Herald-Leader journalists to follow her struggle through drug court since March 2004. How will she cope with treatment that takes her away from her kids? Can a mom make it? Her success will depend on something a court can’t order: hope.