Ebert helped our son by supporting drug court

Letter to the editor 

I write this letter today to Make sure our Commonwealth Attorney Mr. Paul Ebert’s long standing record for the troubled Juveniles in our County is 1brought to light in the wake of his bid for re-election. His foresight and support of the Prince William County Drug Court program did in fact help our son, if not Save his life during a very troubled time as a young adolescent.

Without going into a whole lot of detail, our son found himself involved with the drug culture very early in his adolescent years and consequently in trouble with the court system. Enter in the Prince William County Juvenile Drug Court Program, he was given a second chance, through this program and brought along over an 18-month period of supervision by the Juvenile Court System, counselling, drug testing, New Directions alternative school, and yes, some time spent in the Prince William County Juvenile Detention Center.

Thanks to forward thinking, compassionate, empathetic, leaders like our Honorable Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert, today our son is a vibrant, healthy, happy, taxpaying, productive member of our Prince William County society. That’s what the program was supposed to do and did for our son.

He still has his problems, just like everyone, but he’s able to cope with and work through problems with tools he didn’t have before and gained through the program. My wife and I are very appreciative of Paul Ebert’s role in establishing the Juvenile Drug Court and all the contributions his office made to it. His commitment to giving people (especially young people) a second chance is what we need from his office. We’re deeply concerned that his opponent, Mike May, from the County Board of Supervisors, has very little criminal law experience (by his own admission, he has handled only about a dozen minor misdemeanor cases), but is challenging Mr. Ebert’s nearly 50 years of experience.

As you may also know, The Board of Supervisors, including Mike May, voted to defund and eliminate the Juvenile Drug Court program. Mr. Ebert was dedicated to that program from day one, because he knows that it is juveniles who can benefit most from such a counseling based rehabilitation program. He agreed to allow charges to be dismissed when kids successfully completed the program, including felony charges that could really hurt their entire futures.

In fact, even after the Board cut the funding, Mr. Ebert committed to keep the program going, dedicating his office to see the kids through who were already in the program instead of just stopping it in its tracks. Allowing them to complete what they had already started, seeing it through to the end.

This I’m sure, as a former recipient of such dedicated commitment, will prove to help each and every one of the kids in the program. What’s more troubling is the short sightedness of his opponent Mike May when he has said publically, many times, he voted to cut the program because, “It doesn’t work.”

While everyone who entered the program, did not finish it, there’s no doubt that it literally saved the lives of many kids. My son is a living testament to that fact. He did finish the program, and graduated high school with honors.

But even the kids who didn’t finish, did benefit from it in many ways. And the farther they got in the program, the more tools they gained to help them in their everyday life. I want you, all your readers and potential voters to know that Mr. Paul Ebert and his supporting team is the best choice for Commonwealth Attorney for Prince William County.

Let’s make sure that he is re-elected with an overwhelming yes for the the future for our Community and its people. Thanks for your time and consideration. Tim & Cathy Shaffer.