According to a posting on the 13^th Judicial District Recovery Courts Facebook page, “Recovery Courts Day on the Hill 2019 is in the books.” Representatives spent the day yesterday talking with legislators about the importance of our courts, Governor Bill Lee’s proposed funding for Recovery Courts and how our courts are working to fight the opioid epidemic.

At the midst of the opioid epidemic, Recovery Courts offer an alternative approach with regard to combating addiction.

Judge Gary McKenzie discussed why – and how – Recovery Courts are so successful at what they do.

“The resources and the ability to take every individual that’s struggling with an addiction and locking them up in a local jail or state prison facility is not something that financially we can do,” McKenzie said. “Rather, we’ve got to find a way to combat this problem and take individuals that are nonviolent offenders and divert them out of the criminal-justice system, where we’re warehousing them, and place them into programs  where we can change, make a difference and, hopefully, rehabilitate ’em where we don’t see offenses anymore. That’s something the recovery court does.

“It’s something that’s affecting every single county across the state of Tennessee,” he added, “whether you have a large population or you have a small population, like some of our counties do.”