Probationers start new lives
The Rome Day Reporting Center graduates 30 at a Tuesday ceremony.
John Griffin, 58, was 13 when he bought his first pistol and 15 when he first tried drugs. By 17, he had been convicted of murder and sent to prison — the first of seven stints resulting in 22 years behind bars.
Samantha Simpson, 37, was a straight-A student and a college graduate but her drug use led to a methamphetamine addiction at age 19, and a 2014 arrest was followed by a heart attack.
On Tuesday they were among the 30 graduates of the Rome Day Reporting Center who walked down the aisle of North Rome Church of God to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” as about 250 family members, friends and well-wishers looked on smiling.
“DRC gave me all the tools to fight the cravings … With all this, and God, I have been clean 11 months,” Simpson said. “I have found my new normal.”
The center offers probationers and parolees a concentrated program aimed at helping them beat the cycle of crime and prison. Supervising officer Rick Phinazee said the graduates put in a combined 3,300 classroom hours and 2,300 hours of community service — and took 1,260 drug tests.
Floyd County Superior Court Judges Jack Niedrach and Billy Sparks were among the dignitaries attending the ceremony. DRC administrator Ken Ward said they and other local law officers, including keynote speaker Rome Police Chief Denise Downer-McKinney, help make the program work.
“They ask me at management meetings, ‘Do we have community buy-in; do we have community support up in Rome?’ and I say, “Yes, sir,’” Ward said.
Downer-McKinney first thanked the graduates’ families.
“It is so hard to give up on someone, but you didn’t give up,” she said.
Then she thanked and congratulated the graduates on their drive and dedication to a new way of life.
“To get to this day, your graduation day, is phenomenal,” the chief said.
Downer-McKinney recognized the internal struggles the students overcame and, in motivating them to make use of their sense of renewal, referred to principles in Dr. M. Scott Peck’s book, “The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth.”
“Life is hard, but that’s OK. That is what being human is all about,” Downer-McKinney said. “The other side of the coin is that life is hard, but you can make it better. You started by entering this program. Keep moving forward.”
Griffin and Simpson, the two graduate-speakers, said they intend to do just that.
Simpson has earned a culinary arts degree and a job cooking at a local restaurant. Griffin said he’s studying to be a paralegal and will see where it goes from there.
“Like a gas tank, I started on empty. Now I’m half filled,” he said. “Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”