Corunna, Mi. (FCNG) - On Wednesday Shiawassee County Drug Court graduated 4 more individuals from the intense program. Judge Matthew Stewart that heads the Drug Court stated that in the last 5 years, twenty people, most of who were facing long drug crime prison sentences, have graduated from the program, and out of those twenty, Not One has been convicted of a misdemeanor or a felony since.  

For those of you who do not know what The Shiawassee County Drug Court is the best person to explain it to you is its creator, Judge Matthew Stewart.    

I interviewed Judge Stewart in August of 2017 and he had this to say, 

“I was fortunate to take the bench in 2015. In that year deaths from Opioid overdoses, including heroin exceeded deaths from traffic crashes or gun fatalities. Think About That For A Second… that Opioids were more dangerous than guns or cars. And not just illegal drugs like heroin. We’re talking about things like OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, and Demerol.”  

“In that same year, 2015, Michigan health care providers wrote more prescriptions for Opioid medications than there were people in the State of Michigan. For the approximately 10 million people in the state, health care providers wrote 11 million prescriptions in 2015 and another 11 million in 2016.” 

“And that just covers one class of drugs. That doesn’t address cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, LSD, GHB, ketamine, or any other big-ticket items you’ve heard about.”  

“Make no mistake; this is not something that’s happening “out there,” in Detroit or Grand Rapids. It is a local problem, too.” 

“70% of the criminal cases on my docket are either drug crimes or directly related to drug or alcohol use. If I have six criminal cases on a Friday morning sentencing, four or five of them are drug cases. Those are our friends and neighbors, our parents and children, our husbands and wives.”  

“In the face of its crippling addiction, Shiawassee County had only a few options in response. The single easiest response was to simply lock everyone with a drug problem. The War on Drugs has been ongoing since 1971, and I’ll leave it to the historians to pass judgment on that issue. But in my work, I have the privilege of being surrounded by a number of incredible professionals from a cross-section of the community. And the solution that presented itself to us was obvious; drug court.” 

“Drug courts are not new; they’re just new to Shiawassee County. The first drug court started in 1989 in Florida, and they’ve since spread to all 50 states with nearly 2,500 drug courts in existence.” 

“The drug team started to assemble in October of 2015 and admitted our first participants in April of 2016. Since then, we have received a tremendous amount of support. We’ve received contributions from local businesses, churches, community organizations, and individuals.” 

“Through those efforts, we are able to provide our participants with incentives, which we use to encourage and reinforce positive actions. We have also been fortunate to partner with Recovery Pathways. These folks are so dedicated to recovery and to this program, that they opened an office within sight of the courthouse. As the treatment component of our team, they are leading the charge in our participants’ fight for sobriety.”  

“So, What Is Drug Court? Well, it is a specialty docket that combines alcohol and drug treatment services with case processing in the justice system.” 

“Participants are closely monitored by frequent, random, observed drug and alcohol testing. Participants are offered a continuum of alcohol, drug, and other related treatment and rehabilitation services. It’s a non-adversarial approach to the justice system, in which we form partnerships between the drug court, public agencies, and community-based organizations to encourage success.” 

“For those en route to the Department of Corrections, it offers them the chance to turn their lives around, get clean and rejoin the community.” 

“Each week, our multidisciplinary team meets to discuss each participant. We discuss how they did each week, whether they met with their program expectations. We get updates on their successes and their setbacks. We discuss whether they should be on accolades status, and receive those incentives, or on sanctions status, in which they receive some course correction.” 

“As they move through the program, each participant appears before me on a regular basis. That is my opportunity to meet with each participant as an individual, to get to know them and to see how they are progressing on their journey to recovery. It gives me the chance to watch these brave men and women as they transform from who they were to who they will become. I have been privileged to watch those transformations firsthand.” 

Shiawassee County Drug court currently has close to 20 participants. The photo below is of the 2021 graduation that was held Wednesday on the front lawn of the Court House in Corunna.