A mother's addiction

Gallery: See mores photos taken by Journal photographer John Freidah during a year of covering this story.

Sunday: In her senior year of high school, Tania is introduced to crack cocaine, beginning a drug odyssey that cannot be diverted by a family's love, prison, or life under a bridge. Read the story.

Monday: After getting clean and finding a soul mate, crack's lure ends Tania's "normal" life. She becomes involved with an old acquaintance, Jason Tench, and months later, A.J. is born. But the state seizes custody. Read the story.

Tuesday: Jason gets out of prison, but his warm reunion with Tania dissolves within days. Jason ends up back in prison, and Tania says he is out of her life. Read the story.

Wednesday: Tania is quickly becoming the star of drug court, winning unsupervised visits with A.J., then overnight visits and then she is allowed to care for her baby full-time.

Thursday: Tania slips up and uses crack. But after admitting her transgression, she is allowed to take A.J. to Florida. When she returns, though, her slip becomes a free-fall, and the state sends A.J. back to foster care.

Friday: With A.J. back in foster care with her father and stepmother, Tania spirals downward. After a two-week crack binge, she is coaxed back into Family Court, goes to detox and enters a rehabilitation program.

Sunday: At SSTARBIRTH, Tania regains the right to care for A.J. full-time. In drug court, Tania tells the judge she will stay away from Jason. When she sees an old friend at an Narcotic Anonymous meeting who has stayed clean for six years, she finds hope.

In this week-long series, Providence Journal reporter Edward Fitzpatrick and photographer John Freidah take readers inside Rhode Island's Family Treatment Drug Court to follow the case of Tania Cabral and her infant daughter.

The actions and case files in this court are secret, but Family Court Chief Justice Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. and Tania gave The Journal unparalleled access to the people taking part in this bold new attempt to keep parents off drugs so they can raise their children.

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Edward Fitzpatrick covers state and federal courts for The Providence Journal and previously was a State House reporter. He has 18 years of experience as a daily newspaper reporter and editor. He received a fellowship last year from the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, learning about legal issues and trends. He joined The Journal in 2000 after covering the Connecticut prison system for the Hartford Courant. He was a reporter at the Albany Times Union and city editor at The Saratogian, both in New York. Born in Greenville, R.I., he graduated from Mount St. Charles Academy and Syracuse University.

John Freidah has been a staff photographer at The Providence Journal since 1995 and was a fiber-optic engineer before changing careers to focus on social issues. Freidah partnered with projo.com in 1997 to produce one of the Web site's first multimedia efforts, ``A Time to Die.'' His photography on ``Poisoned,'' a 2001 series about lead-poisoning, won first place in Pictures of the Year International. His work on the 2005 series, ``Saving Block Island,'' has won numerous awards. Freidah has traveled two times to the war zone in Iraq to cover Rhode Island troops. He is a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, N.J., with a degree in engineering and physics.

 

To find out more about Rhode Island's Family Treatment Drug court, go to www.courts.state.ri.us/family/familytreatment.htm

For information on Project Link, go to www.womenandinfants.org

For information on the Vulnerable Infants Program of Rhode Island, go to www.infantdevelopment.org

For information about the SSTARBIRTH residential drug treatment center and the SSTAR detox center, go to www.sstar.org

For information about the National Drug Court Institute and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, go to: www.ndci.org

For research on addiction by the Treatment Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, go to: www.tresearch.org

 

How should society address the issue of drug-addicted parents with children? Is it a good investment of taxpayer money to try to rehabilitate addicted parents and reunite them with their children? What do you think it will take to ensure that Tania stays drug free and keeps her daughter?

Chat: Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. was at The Providence Journal on Wednesday, May 10, for an online chat hosted by Journal staff writer Edward Fitzpatrick. The judge discussed the Family Treatment Drug Court and the case of Tania Cabral and her infant daughter, A.J. Read the transcript.