Governor Nathan Deal honored six graduates of the state’s drug court program:

“You’ve been given a chance, a second chance, that you can live free from addiction.”

Drug courts are a key part of new sentencing legislation that goes into effect next month.

The six drug court graduates have a combined 3,603 sober days between them.

The new law emphasizes putting these kinds of low level offenders through treatment programs instead of jail—saving costly prison beds for the state’s most violent criminals.

But critics are concerned that upfront costs to put the law in place may result in a backlog of cases for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Katie Fitzmorris, from Gwinnett County, is celebrating her graduation and sobriety—and credits the drug court program with saving her life:

“We learned so much from each other. And we can commend one another when we’re doing right, and we can call each other out when we’re not doing so great, and that’s where the growth comes in. Anytime I had tried before to get sober, I couldn’t stay sober, so when I came in, I was so broken down enough that I was willing to listen, and willing to try anything knew to change my life, because I couldn’t live the way I was living any longer.”

Priscilla Daniels, Director of Gwinnett County’s Treatment Program says Georgia’s drug court programs rehabilitate addicts successfully:

“They’ve been told to go to treatment, but they’ve never been held accountable for that.But with drug courts, and DUI courts, we’re able to provide that, help them along the way, give them enough time clean, the tools they need to stay clean, show them what they need to do afterwards, and that seems to help them the most.”

According to the National Drug Court Institute, for every $1 spent on drug court, $2.14 is saved in criminal justice costs.

Tags: parker wallace, drug court, criminal justice legislation