Director of Communications shares compelling stories of graduates from 85th drug court graduation

Press Release June 1, 2022 , by Emma Dunn

PRESS RELEASE – Mitch Talley, Whitfield County Director of Communications, issued a statement to acknowledge the graduates of the 85th drug court program.

He explains that these graduates overcome substantial obstacles to graduate and it is also an acknowledgment to the Whitfield drug court program. His statement is below:

The path to the 85th graduation ceremony of the Conasauga Circuit Drug Court – held May 19 at Edwards Park and also available to watch over the internet via Zoom – has been filled with plenty of obstacles for the participants.

Tracy, like the other four graduates honored during the ceremony, knows first-hand how difficult completing the 24-month-long (or longer) program can be.

“I was sworn into Drug Court on Dec. 19, 2019, and by Dec. 21, 2019, I was sitting back in jail for over-involvement,” she said in a letter to Judge Jim Wilbanks, a requirement to complete the program. “I was still trying to do things my way, and my way never worked. I was sentenced to PDC but ended up furloughing out after six months due to the pandemic.”

Tracy had entered the program with “no idea who I was,” adding that she was “lost, broken, and homeless” and wasn’t sure if she was “even worthy of living a clean and successful life.”

With the help of the Drug Court staff, however, Tracy says her life now is “better than it’s ever been” and that she has learned “integrity, gratitude, morals, values, honesty, trust, and how to set goals no matter how big or small they may be.”

Not everyone is eligible for the program, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary of giving offenders a new lease on life. Once someone has been referred to Drug Court, the treatment team assesses each person and makes a recommendation to the judge whether or not they are suitable. It is ultimately up to Wilbanks to make the final decision, and then it’s up to them to accept. When the judge sees people successfully complete the program and turn their lives around, it’s obvious why he frequently calls Drug Court “the best thing I do.”

For the dozens of graduates through the years, the program has literally been a life-saver. One of the most recent graduates, Jamie, says the program showed her how to overcome a 26-year meth addiction, not that it was easy.

“Recovery at first was challenging for me,” she said. “I was still lying and trying to manipulate staff. I hadn’t surrendered at all to anything. So, my first 30 days in the program was all I completed before I found myself sitting in PDC for three months with plenty of time to think.”

Calling it a “life and death” situation, Jamie says she knew she had either to surrender and get honest, accept her past and what she had done to herself and her family, and work on being a better person and a mother to her children “or I was going to die in addiction.”

After being off drugs for the first time in 26 years, though, Jamie says she was “terrified getting to know who I was” but finally surrendered to the program and to God and has been clean now for three years.

She cautions other addicts not to think their life isn’t worth living “because it is,” adding that “you can do anything you set your mind to and don’t ever let anyone tell you different.”

Heather, meanwhile, feels the same way. In fact, she may have faced an even bigger struggle after spending 34 of her 42 years of life in active addiction.

“I thought there was no other way for me, and nothing and no one could ever fix the nightmare I had become,” she says. “Getting arrested was the best thing that ever happened to me. It was an answer to a prayer I had long prayed on my knees and thought no one had heard.”

Her road to recovery included help from Narcotics Anonymous, with a counselor advising her, “You don’t have to live this way anymore. You take this sheet and fill it up. One meeting a day every day.”

When Heather entered the program, she was worried about not being able to have contact with her family, including her ailing mother for whom she was the primary caregiver. “The team, and you Judge Wilbanks, kindly explained I needed to concentrate on myself, and to do this I needed to be my sole focus. So I prayed and my mom was luckily placed in a fabulous facility that has taken far better care of her than even I could.”

With the help of the Drug Court staff, Heather has turned her life around, pointing out she has been clean for 30 months, has a great job at a local company, and has a car, her own place, and new furniture. She even chairs the literature study every Sunday and has become “a very strong member” of her NA homegroup Courageous, speaks at ADAC and does service work, and attends church at Crosspoint and Rock Bridge.

Like the other graduates, Heather has even bigger aspirations, saying she hopes to return to college eventually for a bachelor’s degree in social work. “I want to help others,” she says, “and … continue to advocate for people who need it the most. I am praying to my Higher /Power to lead me in the right direction.”

For Dorothy, her path in life looks very similar as she entered the program “lost, broken, homeless, and without hope.”

She never imagined one day clean, let alone the two years and 10 months she has managed since entering the program. “If I was to leave a message here today,” she says, “it would be to surrender to the program, trust the process, take this time to work on yourself, and always remember that the staff are here to help you and that they have your best interest at heart. Be honest with staff about everything. If you’re not honest with them, they can’t help you.”

Anthony says he didn’t really want to be honest about his past, however. “I had so much anger inside me and did not think I could do the program,” he says.

But then he started to understand that when he put an effort into the program, “I was able to talk about the hurt in my life and the fear I felt,” he says. “When I opened up, my life started changing so much and I started building myself up.”

Andrew has faced significant losses in his life and “my life was sad as I got older.” One day, for example, he was helping his father and grandfather work on a car when the engine fell on his grandfather and killed him. When he was 15, Andrew became a father himself, the same year his own father passed away, too.

“It hurt so much,” he said, “but I had my girlfriend and my son to keep me working. I asked her to marry me and she said yes, but on the day we were to get married, she left me and took my son. To this day, I do not know where they are at. That started my drug problem.”

The addiction continued through a series of unsuccessful relationships, finally reaching a crescendo when one girlfriend suggested he kill himself “so I tried to,” Andrew says.

“I was driving down the road and ran off the road and hit a power pole at 72 mph. I got my first DUI and got put on probation. I did not report and got busted again for meth. I went to jail, got out, went to court, and got more probation. I did not report and was in and out of jail. Then I got busted again and thought I was going to prison for six years.”

That’s when he entered Drug Court and his life began turning around. Now, after years of hard work, Andrew says his life is happy. “I am honest to myself,” he says. “I have a great job, I am a lead operator at work, I have a truck, I am at the best place in my life, and I live for God.”

He plans to mentor other men in the program and wants to start buying cars to sell to other participants to give them a helping hand, has a great job where he’s a lead operator, and owns a truck.

“The message I would give to others is to put your heart in the program, give it time, and let it change your life,” Andrew says. “Find your support group, always be honest to yourself and others. Find your place with God, be open to what others are telling you, and when you set goals, make sure you finish them.”

If you’d like to learn more about the Drug Court program, call 706-281-4811.