CELEBRATING RECOVERY: Four graduate from Accountability and Recovery Court program

NATCHEZ — Four people celebrated their graduation from a long road to recovery during a Sixth Judicial District Accountability and Recovery Court Graduation Ceremony on Monday afternoon.

Festivities were held at The Event at Gayosa, a venue donated for use by its owner and attorney Anthony “Tony” Heidelberg.

The four graduates — Henry Jefferson Jr., Irish Lytle, Monica Nettles and Ashley Wilson — were honored with a certificate for completing the program, a trophy and most importantly expungement from any and all charges that were held against them because of their addiction.

“The drug court here was charted in 2006 by honorable Lily Blackman Sanders, who retired in December 2022,” said Sixth Judicial District Circuit Judge Debra Blackwell, who now leads the program alongside Judge Carmen Drake.

Since that time, they have given it the name Accountability and Recovery Court.

“That’s what it’s all about,” Blackwell said. “It’s about individuals being accountable for their drug addictions and then going through recovery and getting to the point that they can live day by day as productive citizens in our community.

“Early this year, the administrative office of courts approached us with beginning a pilot program in the State of Mississippi for a mental health treatment court. So, I am proud to say that Judge Drake and I are one of only three pilot programs in the state right now that are in charge of a mental health treatment program,” called the Hope and Restoration Program (HARP), Blackwell said.

The programs are led by a team comprised of Joe Belling, ARC Coordinator; Duchess Prater, ARC case manager; Robert Starks, MDOC probation agent; Cassandra Woods, HARP Coordinator; Fran Gines, HARP case manager; and Andres “Dre” Wallace, ADA.

Doug Jordan, the co-owner of Jordan Carriers, served as a special guest speaker on Monday.

Despite facing the brink of bankruptcy around 2000 and 2008, now with 800 trucks in the fleet and the same number of drivers, Jordan said his company made a tremendous comeback.

Earlier this year, the company opened an $8 million headquarters building in Natchez and is one of the only companies if not the only one its size whose customers are located nowhere near its office, Jordan said.

The only way a company like that survives is by hiring good people to put behind the wheel, many of whom have recovered in programs just like those who graduated Monday, he said.

“People talk about the success story, you know. In business … maybe you’re successful. In business, there’s only outlasting your competitors. You only outlast your competition, and then you just keep going, basically until you die. Whether it’s physically or in the business world, that’s what keeps me going every day.”

Jordan said he knows a lot of people who have recovered from similar situations.

“I’m super happy for you and taking that step. I know it’s hard. I have family members struggling with this. I can’t imagine what you’re going through to do it. … We can call it being successful. I call them being happy and finding their place, and then they’re out of their living and thriving. The one thing they all have in common is they have lost a lot of relatives. They lost all the people that got them into situations, and they have probably had a lonely road until they found their friends.”

In recognizing the graduates with their certificates, Judge Drake said, “There are no perfect people, but what we have today are people who are thriving. They are moving toward success. They did that with the help of our program but they had to do it on their own and for that, we are proud of them.”

In his charge to the graduates, Rev. Dywon Lewis had one simple message.

“Stay the course,” he said.

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