2 graduate from substance rehab programs

When Judge Audrey Barger asked Cody Thompson how he had been, he said he felt spectacular because he'd been "all jacked up on freedom."

Thompson is one of many going through the lengthy DUI court program, and if he's like most participants in the program, he knows what it feels like to lose his freedom.

Thompson is a character inside and out. He is usually boisterous and Thursday he was wearing a T-shirt depicting former President Bill Clinton with an Uzi and a damsel in distress wrapped around his ankles.

Barger, the DUI and Drug Treatment Court judge, pried deeper into Thompson's life, like she does with all the programs' members. She wanted to know what he had been doing.

Thompson told Barger about a car derby he'd won in his 2003 Crown Victoria, a prize that paid out a few thousand dollars. He said he was hoping to enter another derby in the future where the winner would get a payout of $30,000. Barger asked if Thompson owed any money to the program.

Barger always asks participants how many days they'd been sober before they sit down. Thompson said he'd been sober for 346 days. Thompson agreed with Barger that he was about ready to petition for his DUI court graduation - he'd done very well in the program.

Graduation is the point. Once people in the courts have demonstrated they can live healthy lives as functioning members of society, they are released to work, to take care of their families and live sober lives doing so.

Two people, Brandy Winchell and Ella Olin, were ready to graduate Thursday.

Winchell was graduating from drug court and Olin from DUI court.

Barger applauded both women for being among the strongest women to have graduated from the program.

Winchell entered drug court May 2015. Barger told Winchell she revealed there was more to her than the judge thought.

Barger said when Winchell entered the program, she was a mess. She then told Winchell she was "beautiful."

Olin was told by another drug court panel member that she was the definition of overcoming. Barger praised Olin for totally walking out of her old life and starting a new one.

"Times have been tough, but you just kept truckin'," Barger said to Olin. "You've had to recreate your life."

The women thanked the nine-person treatment court panel for the support and then accepted their graduation certificates from Barger.

Drug and DUI courts, a nationwide initiative that started in Florida in 1989, are programs intended to reduce the backlog of drug-related court cases, recidivism and substance abuse among participants. Drug court is an alternative to prison for nonviolent offenders who are chemically dependent.

The programs offer tailored help that addresses the source of the addiction and has the teeth of the judicial system ready to nip at the participants should they stop moving forward. They keep participants, especially in the first phase, wholly busy with counseling and work appointments and drug tests and things of that sort. Drug courts keep addicts in treatment for long periods of time, up to three years, and supervise them closely while in the program.

Drug court started in Hill County more than two years ago and, despite its success, the federal three-year grant will expire this October, putting the program's future in Hill County is limbo.

Barger has said that between now and October she will turn over every rock in an effort to find a way to keep the program going. Coordinator Paul Nugent said last week that there has been no word if any of the grants that have been applied for have been granted.