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behavioral health treatment plan and to make adjustments to terms and conditions of supervision where neces- sary. The judge may initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications authorized by law. According to Slone, affirmation by the judge is critical to the success of the individual. Accord- ing to one study of drug courts, the significantly better outcomes were achieved by drug courts that offered higher and more consistent levels of praise and positive incentives from the judge. Slone then shared some of the suc- cess stories of women who recovered from their addictions. According to Slone, from 2014-2017, 34 of 34 preg- nancies were healthy births, with more

Slone shared the essential requirements of TN ROCS, namely the use of a criminal justice liaison, community corrections and a judge. The criminal justice liaison (CJL) will “perform a triage service using a variety of screening tools such as ASI and CAGE.” He said that the CJL will then engage the client in clinical assessment, rely on techniques of motivational interviewing, and the client’s biopsy- chosocial information to develop a treatment plan. They will then distribute the results to a defense counsel, a prosecuting attorney, and a judge as part of the judiciary, giving a full assessment and summary of recommendation in order to provide a warm and rapid connection to services and contin- ued support and advocacy. After that, the TN ROCS participant will begin reporting weekly to a community supervision officer to be monitored for compliance with their behavioral health treatment plan and attendance to the Tennessee Department of Health’s “Prevention through Education” classes. They will also partici- pate in random and scheduled drug screenings and have direct communication with the court when noncompliance occurs. The next step will be to take the individual to the Tennessee Judiciary, where they’ll appear before the court to review compliance with the

than 70 healthy births at the time of the presenta- tion. He also said that 30 of those mothers were able to retain custody of their children. This also led to a reduction of recidivism in that three-year period, as well as a reduction in overdose deaths in Grainger County by almost 50% from 2013-2017, as well as a 50% reduction in burglary charges in the same county. Jefferson County also saw 1,000 fewer criminal charges in the past year and 950 fewer criminal charges in 2019. Slone concluded his presentation with informa- tion about a Recovery Cabin for these women, with priority to recently evicted women. 22 babies have been born there and 80 women are currently residing here. He also shared images of local churches and communities that came together to build Treatment Recovery Centers and help expand the number of women and children served. Slone also shared images of some of the children helped by this program, and said, “The war on drugs will be won on millions of tiny little battle- fields: the minds of children.” “The opposite of addiction is relationship,” Slone said. “We want to give all the medical care, but at the end of the day, it’s about relationship.”

— Alexander Carrigan

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