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By Buzz Trexler
Star Correspondent

About 200 people turned out Wednesday night to support graduates of the 1st Judicial District Felony Recovery Court program and to hear a message of how it is an example of the community loving its neighbor.

Melanie Sellers, 1st Judicial District public defender, told the crowd gathered at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Center that she grew up seeing her grandparents extending compassion to others, such as providing for “three or four elderly widows in the community.”

“But my grandpa taught me something else,” Sellers said. “In my community, there were two or three men – and I don’t like this label, but I don’t know another way to convey it – but they were the town drunks.”

Sellers said they were often seen walking down the road.

“They didn’t talk much. They always had their head down. Their clothes were dirty. They smelled bad,” she said. “As a young girl of 5 or 6, I didn’t know what to think of them. But my grandpa and my grandmother taught me what to think of them.”

Sellers said when her grandfather would see the men walking down the road, they would get an invitation to the dinner table.

“They would sit across the table from his favorite granddaughter,” she said, enjoying “the bounty of the farm and the bounty of my grandmother’s wonderful cooking. … Because my grandfather understood that you don’t just love your neighbor when it’s easy, you love your neighbor when it’s hard.”

Sellers, who has been practicing law for nearly three decades, said when she entered the field in 1997, nonviolent drug offenders would often be put on probation, released, and encouraged to “go, do well.” But they were also warned they would go to prison if arrested again.

“As far as addressing the issues that brought you to where you were at that point in time, there wasn’t a system in place for that, and there weren’t resources in place for that,” she said.

That changed for northeast Tennessee when the 1st Judicial District Felony Recovery Court started in 2017, and Sellers said she saw it as an opportunity to “love our neighbor.”

“This program—our outpatient and our residential—is different, and it allows us to do that,” she said. “We look at each person as an individual. They are not a number. They are not a box to be checked. They are not a blank to fill in a sentence with. They are a person …”

Helping the recovery program participants deal with underlying issues and break the chains of addictive thinking is a way for the community to “love our neighbors,” Sellers said.

The spring graduates of the program, which takes a minimum of 18 months to complete, are Teddy Ballis, Tammy Cox, Chris Foister, Ricky Greenwell, Ronnie Leach, Pamela Pardue, Zach Tillman, Travis Wilkins, Stevie Wyatt, Daniel Barnett, Jordan Collins, Britaney Holloway, Amber Lingerfelt, and Derek Pearson.

The 1st Judicial District Felony Recovery Court is one of the state’s 82 recovery courts. According to the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, recovery courts were created “to reduce correctional costs, promote safety, and improve public welfare.” Only nonviolent individuals with substance abuse disorders can participate in the program, which includes judicially supervised treatment, periodic drug testing, community supervision, intensive outpatient services, trauma groups for males and females, outpatient groups, parenting education, and family therapy.

The court takes referrals from all four counties in the district: Carter, Washington, Unicoi, and Johnson. In 2022, the recovery court was named a national adult drug court mentor court by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.

The event was hosted by Families Free Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization established in 2002 that oversees the recovery court. Programs are funded by the state and private donations. Its board of directors includes Aliceson Bales, Rebecca Davis, Tay Egres, Laura Garrett, Darcee Kubisiak, Kim Hale, Nancy Storie, Stacie Torbett, and Pam Mobley.

Families Free worked with county and state leaders to establish the Northeast Tennessee Regional Recovery Center (NTRRC) in Roan Mountain, which officially opened its doors with a ribbon cutting in July. NTRRC was financed by 11 counties and cities with funds obtained through the $35 million Endo Pharmaceuticals opioid settlement.