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June 2013
Blount County Cant Afford Not To Fund Drug Court 3 The Presidents Corner 3
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Photo by TOM SHERLIN | THE DAILY TIMES Karla Sells-Gourley, once a participant in the Blount County Drug Court program, is now on the board of the programs foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for rehabilitating repeat nonviolent drug offenders in the community.
Nobody knew
Really was a blessing
The first warning sign was when she ran out of Her time in jail which began with stripping off the original prescription. That fleeting moment of her street clothes and being given lice shampoo durpanic seized, and she soon turned to shady online ing intake wasnt easy. She refused to let family pharmaceutical sites that charged $400 per prescripmembers bring Keaton to visit her, for fear he would tion. The entire time, she continued to sell real estate be traumatized by seeing his mother behind glass and maintain a front of domestic bliss. and unable to embrace her. She called home once a Nobody knew, she said. It was a secret. I week. She prayed. And she began the next phase of thought that if I didnt take them, if I didnt have her self-improvement. them, then I couldnt cope. And if I couldnt cope, I It really was a blessing for me, because it took would be a failure. me out of all the pressure and isolated me and made She convinced a physician friend to write her a me focus on myself, she said. I made friendships prescription, and soon she began altering the prein there, too, because I was no different than they scriptions. She remembers clearly the first time she were except for family support and a little bit of successfully had one filled: the heart-pounding terror money. And in the end, none of that matters. All you of waiting at the pharmacy counter, and the exhilahave in this life is God and family, and thats all that rating thrill of walking out with the pills. matters. You live in such short-term little periods, she After her release, said. Theres not much of a future, Drug Court served as because your future is the next 20 It really was a blessing her anchor. She days until you run out of pills again. for me, because it took me returned to work withBy the grace of God, I didnt have an in a week of her actual street dealer, or I would be out of all the pressure and release; in 2011, she dead. isolated me and made me advocated for the Nobody wanted to quit more appointment of Tammy than me, I just wasnt capable of it. focus on myself. Harrington the It was overwhelming. I would try for assistant district attora day or two, and then I would get ney general who prosecuted her case to the sick. People have asked me, Didnt you love your Circuit Court bench. son more than that? But it had nothing to do with At that time, it would have been super-easy for him. You simply cant, because youre incapable. me to fall off the wagon, she said. Id like to think I would have stayed on my path, but I cant say for End of the road certain. These days, shes more successful than ever Like all addicts, Sells-Gourley eventually came to Coldwell Banker Wallace & Wallace announced last the end of her road when the 5th Judicial District week she was the top closing agent for the first quarDrug Task Force was alerted to her prescription ter of 2013 in her professional life. Through scheme. They questioned her in the parking lot of work, commitment and time, she and her husband CVS and told her they would be back in touch. are closer than ever and now have another son Despite her denials on the spot, she drove home with Kollin, 2. And she serves as a member of the nona sense of both dread and relief. profit Blount County Drug Court Foundation, the Her first call was to her husband; her second, to organization dedicated to providing financial support her mother. They both rushed to her side, and Sellsand publicity for the very program of which she was Gourley admitted she needed help. She left for a once a part. Florida rehabilitation program that day. It makes me feel good, and Im honored to do It would be a year before charges were eventually it, she said. For me personally, the most important filed against her, and during that time, she worked thing in life is to have a purpose, and maybe I went diligently on herself. In 2009, however, her attorney, through what I went through to help others and show Joe Costner, called. She was on vacation in Florida that people can change and come out on the other when he gave her the news: Face trial, or agree to side. Anybody can. Its not a death sentence. Life Drug Court, which would include more than two will go on. months in jail.
By Steve Wildsmith | (stevew@thedailytimes.com) The last time Karla Sells-Gourley was on the front page of The Daily Times, she was an inmate at the Blount County Jail. As a gesture of kindness, a corrections officer allowed her to read the story. Local Realtor charged with three counts of prescription fraud it was headline news and would be one of the most-viewed stories on The Daily Times website for 2009. She wasnt allowed to keep the paper; all she took back to her cell was the knowledge that her ugly secret was now public knowledge, and upon her release shed face judgment, scrutiny and public condemnation. After 67 days, she was released, and so began the long journey back for the William Blount High School graduate and Blount County native. Thanks to the Blount County Drug Court program, she didnt make that journey alone. It gave me something to focus on thats positive, she told The Daily Times recently. It allowed me to prove myself through my actions rather than running my mouth. I learned good things will happen when youre doing the right thing, and I realized that if I can get through that, I can make it through anything. Acceptance, powerlessness, humility, honesty, willingness, faith: Such spiritual principles are foundation stones for a life in recovery, and through therapy, Drug Court, God and family, Sells-Gourley has embraced them perhaps more so than she ever did before. Looking back, she can see how her inability to accept her desire to do and to fix and to make right led to her addiction.
The trigger
Her son, Keaton, was born in 2007. When he was 3 months old, he was diagnosed with craniosyntosis, meaning his skull bones had fused together prematurely. Sells-Gourley and her husband, Kevin, went from Childrens Hospital in Knoxville to Erlanger in Chattanooga, where the first meeting with doctors played out like a horror movie, she recalls. I just remember them saying it would be a massive surgery, that they would have to peel his face off, and they gave me a book that had these graphic details of this surgery, she said. I became consumed with it. If I looked at it once, I looked at it a million times, and the more I looked, the madder I got at God, at other people who had healthy kids.
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Tennessee Recovery Courts. Sounds upbeat and positive, doesnt it? At the Coordinators Conference, Commissioner Varney met with us. DMHSAS is encouraging us to call ourselves "recovery courts". This puts the emphasis on recovery, which is positive, instead of drugs, which has a negative connotation. We were even given some goodies with Tennessee Recovery Courts on it to encourage our use of this term. I presented this to my staff at our staff meeting and they like it and agree it is a better term. So we are changing our letterhead, name, etc. to reflect this change. Our administrative assistant started answering the phone with "Recovery Court" and got some hang-ups. So it will be an adjustment! But we thank DMHSAS for putting thought into how to better present ourselves to the public and to the legislators. DMHSAS definitely has our backs! Another thing that was really obvious at the Coordinators Conference is there is a lot of change going on in our recovery courts across the state. We had at least two coordinators that had been on the job less than a week. There were lots of new Sure it can. But theres no guarantee the Drug Court will. faces that had come on board since the last conferFounded with the aid of a federal grant of almost $400,000 ence a year ago. In the next five years we will be awarded in 1998, the Drug Court just like its clients losing some of our veteran coordinators to retirehas gone through hard times. Grants run out. Recession hits ment. So once again that old adage is true.the revenues. Budgets get squeezed. Bottom line: The Drug only thing that is constant is change. Court has exceeded its fund balance and come up $27,000 But with change comes opportunity! I continue short. to be impressed by DMHSAS and their efforts to The dad-gummed stupid part about that is the Drug Court, aside from saving lives from ruination, saves dollars find ways to support our courts. The Problem by the truckload far more than $27,000. Solving TN-WITS database will be a huge adjustTake an example: Three women in the Drug Court proment for all of us, but it means we no longer have gram gave birth to babies who likely would have been born to do State Reports! We will also be able to run addicted. Cost of medical care for three baby addicts: any number of reports that our stakeholders may be $750,000. Based on information from the National Institute on Drug interested in. And Commissioner Varney has the Abuse, substance abuse costs Blount County more than $100 ear of the Governor, and he is actually listening! million annually. Law enforcement officials estimate 85 per- So, yes, the future could be a rollercoaster ride, but cent or more of crimes committed in the county are drughang on, because the fun is just starting!
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related. There are skeptics. There are those who believe addiction is a symptom of personal weakness or moral depravation. There those suspicious of a program that can count more failures than successes. Amy Galyon thought that, too. She investigated child abuse cases for the Department of Human Services and for the Blount County Sheriffs Office. She worked for Blount County Probation. She visited drug-addicted children in the hospital and thought the worst of their parents. I thought they were bad. I thought they were bad people, they made bad choices, and they needed to rot away underneath a jail cell somewhere for the rest of their lives. Then Galyon was named director of the Blount County Drug Court program in 2010 to get it back on track. Her new job was a revelation. Our biggest challenge? People not understanding addiction as a disease and not looking at it as a disease. Yes, that disease causes bad choices; but we can address the bad choices; it just takes time and the willingness to change perspectives. You were warned not to read this. But since youve gotten this far, do this: Log onto http://www.blountcountydrugcourtfoundation.org . Find out what you can do for Blount County. Double-dog dare ya.
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31ST JUDICIAL DRUG COURT PROGRAM HAS LARGEST GRADUATING CLASS SINCE INCEPTION
Tuesday, April 23, 2013, the 31st Judicial District Adult Treatment Court Collaborative (ATCC) / Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) / Drug Court Program recognized 15 individuals for completing the intensive supervision and treatment program, during graduation ceremonies. Since becoming operational in July 2004, the 31st Judicial District ATCC / DWI / Drug Court Program, which serves Van Buren and Warren County, has had 79 (not counting the current 15 graduates) individuals complete the program successfully. The ATCC / DWI / Drug Court Program boasts an 82% success percentage for the graduates. This translates into 64 individuals who graduated, have not re-offended.
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