It wasn't long before his marriage failed. And in 2000, the final blow came: "What really put me over the edge was when my brother died," Goddard said.

The two had been drinking together. His brother passed out and never woke up. Goddard found the body.

Depression set in, and alcoholism took over. "I gave up on everything," Goddard said.

It wasn't long before he was living on the streets, starting his day with the question, "How quickly can I get drunk?"

It wasn't unusual for him to drink amounts that would have killed most other people. Many mornings, he would wake up and stare at a light bulb above him, trying to recognize whether he was in jail, detox or the emergency room.

Things had gotten so bad once or twice that Goddard made his way to Volunteers of America's detox clinic and had been assigned a case manager, Ed Snoddy, who was tasked with keeping an eye on him. When Goddard was on the streets, the contact was usually limited to when he was "in crisis mode," Snoddy said, in the hospital after a four-day coma or in jail after a trespassing arrest. Then he'd be back on the streets.

A knife fight over a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of booze left Goddard with a scarred face and severe stomach problems. He still needs several surgeries.

But Snoddy hooked Goddard up with Salt Lake City's Pathways program, which so far has helped 17 homeless people get their own apartments. Goddard has been living in his since August 2005. He is still struggling with his alcoholism — he probably always will — but he is approaching two months sober.

Goddard said that support — from Snoddy, from the Fourth Street Clinic and from his fellow Pathways participants — is vital.

And after years of living on the street, sleeping in puddles, his liver soaked in liquor, his body has a lot of healing to do. Then there's the problem of learning to deal with people and society again.

Even relearning to live inside has been tough. Goddard slept on the floor the first several nights in his apartment — a bed felt too foreign to him.

Work in progress

Nationwide, research continues to work out how restorative justice can be most effective, and some types of programs have earned more widespread credibility than others.

Drug court, for example, is an idea that is at least 20 years old, and Judge Baxter said it has undergone all sorts of revisions to the point that it is now popular nationwide, and largely seen as effective.

Other programs, such as domestic-violence court, have "fairly substantial compliance" with probation, but "what's up in the air is whether that's effective," Baxter said.

During probation, victims usually feel safer, and there is little continued violence, Baxter said. It remains to be seen how long that lasts.

Proponents say that while big-picture numbers for all of Salt Lake's restorative-justice programs are yet to be established, the biggest successes are seen in individual lives.

"The alternative," Baxter said, "is to do nothing."

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com