7 graduate from New Way to Recovery Drug Court program

Seven graduates, including one honored posthumously, were recognized Sunday, May 4 as the seventh graduating group of the New Way to Recovery Drug Court Docket of the Highland County Common Pleas Court.

The spring 2025 graduates included Jessica Brown, Daniel Butcher, Terry Harlow, James Pauley, Joann Shapley and Teresa Sharpe, as well as Josh Hammond, who was honored posthumously both as a graduate and as the namesake of a new award for participants.

The guest speaker for the graduation ceremony was Tim Clark, who has been clean for over a decade after being sentenced to community control in 2013.

According to Highland County Probation Program Director/Chief Probation Officer and Drug Court Coordinator Tonya Sturgill, there have been 108 admissions and 26 unsuccessful terminations since the drug court began, while 63 individuals have successfully completed the program thus far.

The first drug court session was held in August 2019, and the program includes four phases that take a minimum of 18 months to complete.

The seventh class of graduates includes individuals who were admitted to the drug court docket in 2022 and 2023, as Sturgill called them “the definition of persistence, perseverance and success.” She highlighted the significant progress all of the graduates have made through the program.

Sharpe, who was in the program the longest (admitted in October 2022), overcame “her fair share of struggles” en route to sobriety and is now “rebuilding a relationship with her children and grandchildren in order to have a healthier, happier life.”

Brown and Butcher have both secured housing and employment and have gotten their driver’s licenses reinstated while also working on their relationships with their children.

Shapley, who faced “the additional challenge” of outpatient treatment instead of residential, is celebrating two years of sobriety while also employed in a leadership role and “being a fully present, supportive, active mother to her eight kids.” Pauley also completed outpatient counseling instead of residential, with the added challenges of health issue, working, remodeling a home and quitting smoking.

Although Harlow had a previous “unsuccessful yet very eventful” community control sentence in which he was arrested multiple times for failure to appear, Sturgill said he was committed to "a fresh start and a new way of life” when he was admitted into the drug court docket. Not only did Harlow successfully complete outpatient treatment and find a job, but Sturgill said he “walked to treatment and to our office every week to stay compliant” with the program rules.

Hammond, who was admitted into the drug court docket in July 2023, “successfully completed residential treatment” and was employed and “being a committed father to his two beautiful girls” at the time of his unexpected passing on Feb. 8. Members of his family were given a certificate in recognition of his successful completion of the program.

As mentioned, Hammond was also selected to be the namesake of a new award in honor of an accomplishment that he himself had during his tenure with the program. The Hammond Award will now be presented to all graduates who successfully complete the program with no positive drug tests. The inaugural award winners were Butcher and Shapley.

As previously reported, according to Coss, “the mission of the drug court docket is to enhance public safety by preventing recidivism; assisting participants in taking responsibility for their behavioral health issues by turning them from a path of self-destruction to a path of recovery; creating a continuum of approved treatment and rehabilitation services through community programs that meet the needs of participants; and using evidence-based practices in intervention and treatment of substance abuse and other co-occurring mental disorders or medical issues that offenders may have.”

Sturgill thanked Coss for his continued efforts to ensure the program’s success.

Also thanked were Jon Parr and Kim Davis of the Probation Department, as well as the treatment providers who assist with the program, including: The Recovery Council (FRS); The Counseling Center; Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health; PATH Behavioral Healthcare; STAR Community Justice Center; Another Chance Ministries; REACH For Tomorrow; and Clean Acres.

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