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The three courts
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- In a crisis
If you or someone you love is in immediate danger, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Shelby County runs three treatment courts. Each one offers a person facing criminal charges a different path: instead of serving out a sentence, a participant completes a structured program of treatment, supervision, and regular court appearances. Our job is to make sure every client understands what each program asks and what failing it costs — before deciding to participate. If a better outcome is available in a regular courtroom, we say so.
Entry is voluntary
No one can be forced into a treatment court. Admission is not automatic either: each program sets its own eligibility criteria, and the court and its team decide who is accepted.
We appear in all three courts, and our attorneys stand with clients at every status hearing, not only at the beginning and the end.
What We Do
Treatment courts work differently from ordinary criminal courts. The judge, prosecutors, treatment providers, and defense attorneys meet as a team and discuss each participant’s progress. That structure can produce real help — treatment beds, medication, housing referrals, a judge who knows your name.
It also means someone has to hold the line on your rights inside a room built for cooperation. That is our role. We collaborate on what helps our client and we litigate when liberty is on the table.
Before you enter
The most important work happens before anyone signs anything. Your attorney will walk you through:
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The merits of your case as if treatment court did not exist
What the evidence shows, whether there are motions worth filing, what the offer looks like outside the program, and whether judicial diversion (T.C.A. § 40-35-313) or pretrial diversion (§ 40-15-105) is available instead. -
What the program actually demands
How long it runs, how often you appear, what treatment looks like week to week, how drug testing works, and how that specific court uses jail as a sanction. -
What you give up
Trial rights, the ability to litigate a search after entry, and privacy over some of what you tell your treatment providers. -
What happens if it doesn't work out
The exact sentence you would serve, in writing, before you agree to anything, along with an honest account of how many people complete that program, the earlier plea offer you give up by entering, and how entry can push back the date you become eligible to have the charge expunged. -
Consequences beyond the courtroom
Immigration status, housing, federal benefits, professional licenses, firearm rights, sex offender registration where it applies, and any open custody or DCS matter. -
Cost
Program fees, testing fees, and treatment co-pays, and how to get them waived if you can't pay.
While you're in the program
- We attend every team staffing where a client's case is discussed, and we stand with the client at every status hearing.
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We contest sanctions that aren't warranted.
A presumptive positive drug test is not a confirmed positive. Symptoms of a diagnosed illness are not willful non-compliance. Withdrawal is a medical event. Before any jail sanction or residential placement, we ask for notice, the evidence, and a hearing. -
We protect what you tell us.
Signing into a treatment court does not waive attorney-client privilege. We review every release of information line by line and refuse the broad “share everything with the team” version. -
We advocate for treatment, not just law.
Prescribed medication for opioid or alcohol use disorder is medicine, and national standards require programs to permit it. Twelve-step is one path among several. Treatment decisions belong to clinicians and the client, not the court. -
We fight fee-based punishment.
Bearden v. Georgia bars sanctioning or revoking someone for being unable to pay, as opposed to refusing to pay. Inability to pay is a defense — one that has to be raised and proven with evidence, and we litigate it.
If the program ends early
Termination is the most serious decision a treatment court makes, and we treat it that way — written notice, the evidence, witnesses, a hearing, and a decision on the record. Before that point, we look at whether a change in services, a phase reset, or other option would serve the client better than an involuntary discharge.
When you graduate
We make sure the agreed disposition is actually entered — dismissal, reduction, or diversion — and we advise on expunction eligibility under T.C.A. § 40-32-101. We also connect graduating clients to what comes next: license restoration, voting rights, continued behavioral health care, VA benefits, and peer recovery support.
Your choice
Graduation publicity is your decision, not the program’s. You can graduate without your name, face, or story being used.
The Three Courts
Recovery Court
Founded 1997 · State-certified 2008 · National mentor court since 2003
Founded in 1997 and state-certified in 2008, Shelby County Recovery Court has been a national mentor court since 2003 — one of the programs other counties are sent to study.
Who it's for
Adults facing non-violent charges who have a moderate-to-severe substance use disorder identified through a validated clinical assessment. Eligibility is governed by T.C.A. § 16-22-113. Tennessee law defines certain violent offenses as a categorical bar (T.C.A. § 16-22-103(4)) — that exclusion is set by statute and cannot be argued around.
Structure
Four phases over 12 or 18 months. Participation is voluntary.
What we watch
Drug testing generates more sanctions than anything else in this court, so testing reliability is where much of the defense work happens — cut-off levels, chain of custody, confirmatory testing, and legitimate sources of a false positive like prescribed medication, hemp products, or kratom. Outside the statutory bar above, we push back on blanket exclusions for a prior felony, a previous treatment failure, or a current prescription for buprenorphine or methadone — none of those should automatically disqualify anyone.
Mental Health Court
Mental Health Treatment Act of 2022 · Drug Court Treatment Act of 2003
Shelby County’s Mental Health Court operates under the Mental Health Treatment Act of 2022 and the Drug Court Treatment Act of 2003 (T.C.A. § 16-22-101 et seq.).
Who it's for
Adults living with a serious mental illness — including schizophrenia spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, major depression, and PTSD — where that illness is closely connected to the conduct charged, and where the charge is a non-violent misdemeanor or a low-level felony. Having a substance use disorder alongside a mental illness does not disqualify anyone.
What we watch
A diagnosis can be a reason to enter this court and also a reason not to. If competency is genuinely in question, we raise it under T.C.A. § 33-7-301 before entry rather than after. We verify whether a guardian or conservator has decision-making authority. And we hold the line on a basic distinction: medication decisions, hospitalization, and residential placement are clinical matters under Title 33 — they are not punishments.
Veterans Court
Established 2012 · First in Tennessee · Largest in the state
The first veterans treatment court in Tennessee, established in 2012, and still the largest in the state.
Who it's for
Veterans, and Guard and Reserve members, whose eligibility is more complicated than for active-duty service and worth checking rather than assuming. Do not assume you’re ineligible. A discharge that was less than honorable does not automatically rule out VA benefits, and a discharge upgrade may be available. Being ineligible for VA benefits does not exclude you from the program. There are resources for veterans who do not qualify for the VA. If you’re on probation and facing acceleration, you can still apply where at least a year remains on your probationary term — or where you agree to extend it.
Structure
A minimum of one year. The team meets each Wednesday; new participants enter on the second and fourth Thursday of the month.
What we do here
With your consent we obtain your DD-214, connect clients early to the local VA Veterans Justice Outreach specialist for benefits and healthcare enrollment, and screen for the conditions this population actually carries — PTSD, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, depression, substance use, and chronic pain. Where the VA has made a clinical judgment about a client’s treatment, including medication-assisted treatment, we ask the court to defer to it.
We try to pay particular attention to veterans the standard pipeline tends to miss: women veterans, LGBTQ+ veterans, survivors of military sexual trauma, and Guard and Reserve members.
A note on mentors
Veterans Court uses Veteran Mentors, who are there to support you rather than to serve on the court’s team. A mentor is not your lawyer, though — if you have a legal question, bring it to your attorney.
Common Questions
Do I have to go into a treatment court if I'm eligible?
No. Entry is voluntary, always. Your attorney will tell you honestly whether it’s the better option in your case, and sometimes the answer is no — a regular disposition, a diversion, or taking the case to trial may leave you better off. The decision belongs to you.
What happens if I don't finish the program?
If you entered a conditional guilty plea or agreed to complete the program as a condition of probation, you serve the sentence you agreed to when you entered. If your case was paused when you entered the program, it will resume. In either case, we will advise you of the consequences of not finishing the program before you enter — so there are no surprises later. If termination is being considered, you have the right to notice, to see the evidence, to be heard, to present and question witnesses, and to have us represent you at a contested hearing.
Can they take away my medication?
Not without a fight from us. National treatment court standards require programs to permit prescribed medication for opioid and alcohol use disorder, and in Mental Health Court, psychiatric medication is a clinical decision, not a court sanction. If a program pressures a client off prescribed medication, we raise it at the team staffing and, if that doesn’t resolve it, in open court.
Does everything I say in treatment get back to the judge?
Not everything, and not automatically. What you tell your SCPD attorney is privileged, and we do not share it with the team without your permission. There are a small number of narrow exceptions the law imposes on every attorney — Tennessee requires reporting suspected abuse of a child or a vulnerable adult, and in an emergency where someone’s life is in immediate danger we may disclose the minimum needed to keep them safe. Your attorney will explain these to you. Outside of those, what you share in treatment is governed by the release you sign — which is exactly why we read those releases line by line and won’t accept one that authorizes sharing everything with everyone forever.
We also warn clients before entry that statements made in a treatment program can surface in other proceedings, including probation revocations, new charges, DCS cases, and immigration matters.
What if I can't afford the fees?
Tell us. Program fees, drug testing costs, and treatment co-pays add up, and for a lot of participants they become the actual obstacle to finishing. We request indigency findings, fee waivers, and deferrals, and we object to requirements that quietly exclude people without a car or without money — daily reporting far from a bus line, testing sites off transit routes, co-pays Medicaid doesn’t cover.
What if I overdose or end up in a mental health crisis while I'm in the program?
An overdose is a medical emergency, and we advocate for it to be treated as one — naloxone, more treatment, a medication adjustment — not as grounds for jail or termination. The same is true of a psychiatric crisis. If you or someone you love is in immediate danger, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
I'm pregnant. Will they make me stop my medication?
They should not, and we will object if they try. Methadone and buprenorphine are the recognized standard of care for opioid use disorder during pregnancy. We’ll also make sure you understand Tennessee’s hospital reporting requirements around substance-affected newborns and what that can mean for a DCS case, so nothing catches you off guard.
I have an open DCS or custody case. Does that matter?
Yes, and tell your attorney early. Statements made in treatment court can be requested in dependency and custody proceedings. We coordinate with your attorney in that case if you have one, refer you to civil legal aid if you don’t, and object to program requirements that get in the way of reunification without a clinical reason.
What if English isn't my first language?
You are entitled to a qualified court interpreter for every substantive conversation — not a family member, and not a bilingual acquaintance. Tell us and we’ll arrange it.
For Attorneys and Referral Partners
Referring a client: Community providers, family members, and attorneys outside SCPD can call (901) 222-2800 to ask about treatment court eligibility. For clients whose cases involve serious mental illness, ask also about the Jericho Project, our jail diversion program — which is open to anyone charged with a crime in Shelby County, not just SCPD clients.
Find your attorney
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