N

Members of the Coffee County community came together to celebrate a ribbon cutting and open house at the new Coffee County Recovery Court located at 604 College St., Manchester, September 17.

Circuit Court Judge Bobby Carter said that for many years, the Coffee County Justice Center was the end of the road for many people struggling with substance abuse issues, but programs like the Coffee County Recovery Court can be a road to a better future.

“Thirty years ago there was a judge in Nashville named Seth Norman and he figured out that there was another way to handle some of these people,” Carter said. “ … What Judge Norman figured out was if we could use the court system to process people and perhaps instead of making it the end of the road for people maybe start a road for people.”

Carter said since that time, drug courts have expanded into virtually every state in the country and they have proved themselves effective over the decades.

“What we started finding out, because we keep good records for this, is we did save people,” he said. “We turned people who made bad choices into good citizens. Fathers, mothers, people that raised their children, people that had jobs, taxpayers, good citizens.”

Carter said Coffee County previously had a recovery court, known as the Coffee County Drug Court Foundation, but it was shut down due to falling efficacy.

It was a program the community wanted back, he said.

“Now this is not going to be for everybody and this is not going to be a copout,” Carter said. “People that come into this, they are going to recognize we have the confidence in them that we think they can make it but it is not going to be an easy road because I can tell you, and I can tell you from personal experience it is not an easy road.”

Coffee County Recovery Court Director Allen Burnette thanked the many people who attended the event and spoke of his own experience with a recovery court.

“Oct. 26, 2006 I was accepted into a recovery court program over at Franklin County,” he said. “Recovery Court gave me an opportunity to sit my but down and sober up. Whenever I started to sober up, I started thinking a little bit more rationally, I started making better decisions but actually I started building that relationship with God which helped me to build that relationship with myself.”

Burnette said October 27 will make his 18th year in recovery, and since that time his goal has been to ensure other people struggling with addiction have the same opportunities that he had to live a better life.

“Somebody asked me once what was my goal, it is not big, it is not big at all,” he said. “I just want to succeed, that is it. I want to succeed. I want the people who are hurting, the families who are hurting in this community to succeed, to get better. I want to help stop the recidivism rate of the individuals who are going in and out of Sheriff Partin’s jail but I can’t do that by myself. It takes all of us to make this happen.”

Coffee County Mayor Dennis Hunt also read a proclamation, proclaiming September 2024 as National Recovery Month.