Current Temp: 32°
- Lexington, KY
- Snow
- High: 37°
- Low: 24°
About Dawn's story
Chapter four of six: After giving birth to her fourth child, Dawn Nicole Smith, almost 23, has a brief respite from the rigorous regimen required by Fayette County Drug Court. It allows non-violent criminals to avoid prison if they stick to the program and stay clean. Addicted to painkillers since her teens, Dawn was sent to drug court for forging prescriptions. Kentucky has invested $56 million in drug courts, which will serve every county by year-end. Dawn and the court have allowed two Herald-Leader journalists to follow her struggle through drug court since March 2004. Two out of five criminals sentenced to Fayette County Drug Court stay clean. Will Dawn be one of them? Her success will depend on something a court can't order: hope.
- Business
- Business Columnists
- Industries
- Regional Indicators
- Technology
- On the move
- Create a portfolio
- Heather Chapman
- Rich Copley
- John Clay
- Crime and courts
- Merlene Davis
- Tom Eblen
- Editors' blog
- Lu-Ann Farrar
- Mike Fields
- Harriett Hendren
- Inside Iraq
- Jim Jordan
- Larry Dale Keeling
- Photographers
- Pol Watchers
- Susan Smith-Durisek
- Mark Story
- Sharon Thompson
- Jerry Tipton
- Cheryl Truman
- Walter Tunis
- Alicia Wincze