Before State District Judge John Creuzot announced his retirement back in March, the Phoenix House folks had already slated its May 10th Triumph for Teens luncheon at Brook Hollow Golf Club to honor him. . . and with very good reason. For 21 years the SMU Law School graduate has garnered quite a national reputation “as an expert in drug courts.” In fact he created the first drug court and DIVERT (Dallas Initiative for Diversion and Expedited Rehabilitation and Treatment), which “has achieved a 68% reduction in recidivism and boasts over $9.00 in avoided justice costs for every dollar spent on participants in the program.”
The former Dallas Assistant Director Attorney was appointed to the State District Court 4 by the late Gov. Ann Richards in 1991. Since then he was been re-elected five times, running at times as a Democrat and others as a Republican.
As Judge Creuzot said in a Dallas Morning News interview last October about his legacy,
“I think that I’ve played a big part in that through the numbers we’ve developed here in Dallas through DIVERT court [Dallas Initiative for Expedited Rehabilitation and Treatment, a program for drug-addicted probationers] and almost every session since 1991 … I’ve had the opportunity to go down and talk and visit with legislators in committee meeting about rehabilitation’s impact on cost, impact on prison population.”
As part of the luncheon program, Director of Dallas County Community Supervision and Correction Department Dr. Michael Noyes will formally rename the 300-bed drug treatment and retraining center in Wilmer that is operated by the Phoenix House of Texas, the Judge John C. Creuzot Judicial Treatment Center.
Another honoree at the luncheon will be Torchy’s Tacos and its founder Mike Rypka for “their generous support of adolescent programs in Austin, Dallas and Houston.
The luncheon’s featured speaker will be author Julie Hersh, who also received national recognition for her struggle with depression. Julie, who wrote “Struck by Living,” recently received the Mental Health of America Ruth Altshuler Community Advocate Prism Award. But don’t go thinking that Julie’s talk will leave you depressed. She is both inspiring and instructive in how to deal with mental illness and recovery.
For ticket information, contact Phoenix House Director of Development Patricia Garvey at 214.412.7858.