"How you doing?" Judge Joseph Locascio asks a drooped-faced defendant on a Thursday afternoon in Part G of the Municipal Court building. In most other courtrooms, he'd of asked, "How do you plead?"
But this is drug court, one of the city's newest tools in its fight against drug-related crime and recidivism, and Locascio presides over the courtroom not only as a dispenser of justice, but as a lifeline for those ready to change their lives.
Many street prostitutes like Darlene White, the subj
