NEWS

Q&A: Kevin Batts

Recovery courts are seeking to close the ‘revolving door’ for people with substance abuse disorders

BY ISABELLA ROMERO

Recovery courts are giving those struggling with addiction the opportunity to turn their life around through a program that seeks to change the narrative surrounding addiction.

In the Nashville area, Kevin Batts is a part of that change. Prior to becoming the director of the 23rd Judicial District Drug Court in July of 2009, Batts worked as a public defender for 33 years. Batts first heard of recovery courts in 2007. He was asked to sit in on meetings to discuss the development of a statewide drug court. Batts said the more he learned about recovery courts, the more interested he became. He found that recovery courts might actually do something about the drug problem in America.

Recovery court programs vary from district to district based on a community’s specific needs. Programs integrate law enforcement, the criminal justice system, trained professionals, and the community to treat those with impending non-violent drug charges. It serves as an alternative to incarceration for people struggling with addiction.

Recovery court programs in Tennessee house and rehabilitate those who are willing to participate through five phases with 18 months of supervision.

Within a week of retiring as a public defender, Batts was contacted by the Dickson County Drug Court. Batts started doing volunteer work, grant writing and court expansion. In the process of helping fund the court, he created a director position. After a couple months, he thought his work was done, but he was offered the position he had just created.

Batts discussed the “revolving door” people with substance abuse disorders have faced throughout the history of the criminal justice system — a cyclical system that repeatedly incarcerates drug addicts and alcoholics when they break the law and as soon as their sentence ends they go back to their addiction which only leads them back behind bars. Batts talked about seeing the same people going in and out of the criminal justice system. He would then see their family, children and grandchildren as well.

“They were violating laws based on the addiction they were suffering from, and it just made a lot of sense to me,” Batts said. “If we could shut that revolving door by closing down the drug problem as much as we could then we could give them a chance to rehabilitate not just from the drug, but rehabilitate their entire lives, rebuild their family structure, rebuild their careers, their jobs, and go back to school, if that's what they want to do.”

Do you think there is a place where recovery courts and rehabilitation programs differ such as the rehabbing of the entire person, not just the [addiction issues]?

[Rehab programs] are wonderful, but I think the real difference between a standard rehabilitation center and a drug court is that we have the authority of the state of Tennessee behind us as an arm of the legal world. We can go in as part of the judicial branch and actually order individuals to go through a rehabilitation program. We can mandate participants follow all these rules that we put out like attending meetings and meeting with a probation officer, things like that. So that's the biggest difference right? Regular treatment center, you'll walk out and there are generally no repercussions from that treatment center. You either want to stay clean or you don't. With us, if you walk out from the court program that you have been ordered to attend as an alternative sentence, the judge can charge you with escape. This would allow the district attorney to go back before the judge to put your sentence into effect. There are a lot more repercussions when you slip up in a drug court compared to a traditional treatment center.

What is the general role of a recovery court judge?

Recovery court judges in our district are circuit court judges that have the additional duties of running the recovery court. In some jurisdictions in Tennessee there are general sessions drug courts that are for people who have committed misdemeanors and the two operate similarly. The role of the recovery court judge is to lay down the normal duties of a judge and become more of a rehabilitation-type judge. We're all working together as a team with the judge to get this person well, as opposed to simply handing out justice.

When people first kind of hear of recovery courts do they know how long the treatment will be before choosing it?

Our people usually come straight from the jail setting so they've talked with other inmates about how long the program is. It's not a surprise to most people. Some people are taken aback when they realize they have a very serious addiction issue and may need to go to inpatient treatment for a year. I've seen people decide not to come in through a court because they do not want to go to a full year of inpatient treatment.

It's normally gauged by their sentence. If they feel like their sentence is going to be less than rehab they might choose to observe the sentence. It's unfortunate because usually in a year or two we see them come back through that revolving door.

If you have a six month sentence and you're told you need to go to treatment for a year plus recovery court for 18 months, you might want to sit in jail for six months. This is especially the case if you're getting some bad advice from jailhouse lawyers who are telling you it's all about the time. But when you get out of jail you're not well, and you've not done anything to improve your life.

What have you learned through working in recovery courts?

I've learned that it is possible to turn people's lives around. I have a whole new respect that I didn't have 20 years ago for what can be done to rehabilitate people. I don't think anybody should be given up on and I think that happens in the traditional criminal justice system. I think the system itself just gets tired of dealing with an issue and in drug court we never have that feeling. We never feel like we've finished or that we can't do something more. And I think that's what has impressed me the most. There's always something more to do, and there's always more people to reach out to.

Is there a specific memory from working in recovery courts that sticks out to you?

I love our graduation exercises, and that's a collection of memories because we ask our graduates to stand before the court, all the other participants, their families, sheriffs, and former graduates. It's one big group looking for the same goal. The graduate stands up in front of his or her peers and has some very heartfelt talks. They talk about the difference the drug court has made in their lives, telling their peers to stick with it, listen to each other, and depend on each other. It is a group effort as much as it is an individual effort. I get so charged up after listening to one of those speeches. And you know, with no exception, everybody gets up and gives such a beautiful speech. And some of the graduates, I've never really heard them speak publicly before. They kind of come out of their shell, but they're so excited about their new life that they just bubble over. I think that's the most obvious blessing that comes to mind.

Following people's participation in the recovery court program, how does their life change? What does it look like versus before their participation? Do they have a new outlook on life?

Yeah, absolutely. We give them a job when they first come in and we give them a nice place to live. Our houses are very nicely decorated. It looks nothing like a jail cell. We're trying to get them used to living life again. They sit down at a table, eat dinner with other people, and cook dinner themselves, as a group. Participants learn how to cooperate and do things like a big family so that when they rejoin their family, they know how to do it. Participants learn how to get along with one another. Their whole life changes. They've learned good eating skills because they're surrounded by people who are trying to get on better diets and eat the proper meat and vegetables, not the junk food addicts tend to fall into because they don't necessarily think about taking care of themselves. They didn't always have those skills. They've learned the skills of getting up every morning, cleaning up, presenting themselves, and going off to work. Participants have learned an awful lot by the time they've gotten through two years of group and individual counseling. The most significant thing is that they have served their time in an alternative drug court sentence, so when they get out they don't have to go back to jail. They're really free to start their life again, and that's the most significant change. It's a whole different life.

How do you think recovery courts affect both the drug addict population and the homeless population, specifically Nashville and the surrounding Nashville area?

Those suffering from homelessness that are ordered to go to court were homeless when they went into jail. If they don't have a violent criminal history, but they do have a drug issue, and they voluntarily apply to a court, the judge will order drug court as an alternative sentence. The catch is that you have to want it. If you don't want it, you don't get it. You gotta want it. That person who may have been homeless when they got involved in the criminal justice system can eventually be sentenced to drug court. The program gives them a home and a place to live. You're much much less likely to return to a homeless state when you graduate from the program. Our graduates that keep up with us prior to graduation do not have any desire to go back to the issues that created the homelessness to begin with. They want to stay employed, healthy, sober, and in a good home where they can provide for themselves.

What do you wish other people knew about recovery courts?

I'm happy more people are learning about them all the time. I wish more people understood that what we're trying to do is totally change someone's life, not just get them off of drugs. We are trying to change their lives and the lives of their children. I wish more people could understand that an addict is a genuine person with genuine feelings just like everyone else. They have an addiction, an illness, they struggle with that pervades every aspect of their life and I wish others could think of them that way. If more people could think of an addict in those terms, we can treat their illness, we can turn their illness around, and know it's not that they were just a bad person. There are too many people out there that avoid addiction issues because they feel it's something to be avoided when it really should be something to reach out to.

How have recovery courts grown in the last several years?

In the last two years, everything has been different because of COVID, but in the last several years, our success rate has become more noticeable to the government and news media. There are more people in government that are looking to drug courts for the answers now. There is more support for recovery courts, we just

had to prove ourselves. The courts are pretty new. Most courts in the country are less than 20 years old. And it just took a while to get the track record we have now. That has helped us tremendously in having a voice in the recovery community. We've really grown as far as financial support, but it's been methodical year to year. We're able to grow by increasing our ceiling a little bit and taking another ten more people than we did last year. But the biggest growth has been in society realizing that we are a viable answer. Not just a viable answer, but probably a better answer than most other options available out there.