Father's Relapse Offsets Mother's Success With Sobriety

In the sixth report in a series, staff writer Mary Otto recounts one couple's journey through the Family Recovery Program, an experimental Maryland court attempting to help drug addicts get clean, then get their children back from state custody. The story reflects scenes the reporter witnessed or, when noted, were recalled to her. At the last hearing, Stacy Coleman and Keith Cromwell had weathered crises and stayed clean.

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2006

Keith Cromwell looks up sharply as the judge walks into the Family Recovery Program courtroom. It is a substitute, and Cromwell has reason to feel nervous.

"Mr. Cromwell, how you doing, sir?" Judge Sylvester B. Cox Jr. asks after calling the case.

"Fine," Cromwell answers tersely.

"You had a little bit of a hiccup back on August 12. But you are not going to do that anymore, are you, sir?"

"No, sir."

Two weeks earlier, Cromwell had been overwhelmed with anxiety -- anxiety about whether he and fiancee Stacy Coleman would win back custody of Keyona, their 1-year-old daughter in foster care. Anxiety about where they would live.

The summer had begun with such promise: Cromwell and Coleman had resisted drugs for months. Through treatment programs, they worked on skills they would need to raise a child: anger management, relapse prevention and parenting techniques.

An important hearing on Keyona's future was set for June. Cromwell got a job at a doctor's office. He and Coleman filled out paperwork at the city housing office for an apartment in the Lanvale Institute, a public school that had been turned into transitional housing for families in the program.

But the June hearing was postponed until September without any real explanation. The wait for their apartment at Lanvale was longer than they expected. Cromwell became agitated, badgering officials about his future.