Saving lives and money: Fulton court programs earn state honor

Fulton County rehabilitative court programs that leaders and participants say are saving lives and money have earned the state’s top honor for alternative sentencing.

Georgia’s Council of Accountability Court Judges has granted model status to Fulton’s Behavioral Health Treatment Court and Recovery Treatment Court, recognizing their excellence in handling criminal cases involving repeat defendants with mental health disorders and drug and alcohol addiction.

The success of Fulton’s programs, aimed at reducing incarceration and recidivism, will now help guide the staff and stakeholders involved in other so-called accountability courts around the state. The county achieved the recognition once before, in 2024, for its Veterans Treatment Court.

Douglas County Superior Court Chief Judge Cynthia Adams, who serves as chair of the Council of Accountability Court Judges, said the courts that are granted model status serve as mentors to others. In a statement, she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the aim is to “strengthen our courts, help our participants, improve our communities, and most importantly save lives.”

This year, the council has given the distinction to 18 of the 65 addiction and mental health court programs currently operating across the state. The status lasts three years.

“For me, it is a recognition of the staff,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Emily Richardson, who presides over the county’s Behavioral Health Treatment Court, said of the honor. “These are individuals who have dedicated their lives to helping the people in our community that most people want to ignore.”

Richardson’s program typically has around 60 to 70 participants at a time, each involved for about two years. She said they range in age from 19 to 70-something and come from all parts of the community. She said their common thread is that mental health disorders, usually coupled with substance abuse, has led to unstable housing, unemployment, broken relationships and repeat offending.

Through the program, defendants who don’t have serious violent or sexual charges can replace jail time with at least 18 months of in-depth mental health and substance abuse treatment, therapy and classes for life and career skills, among other things.

“We are really aimed toward helping these folks regain stability,” Richardson told the AJC. “We want them to be productive members of our community again.”

‘A life-or-death situation.’

Ashley Powell, a 40-year-old mother, told the AJC she’d be dead if it wasn’t for the Fulton accountability court program she graduated from in January. She said she was addicted to heroin and crack cocaine before entering the program in February 2023, having been jailed on a felony larceny charge.

Now, Powell said she is approaching her fourth year of sobriety while she raises her 2-year-old son and studies at Georgia State University to become a social worker. She said the program refocused her mind and implemented a reward and consequence system that helps her navigate each day.

“This really is a life-or-death situation, dealing with addiction,” Powell said. “The program was a lifesaver for me. They dealt with me as a whole.”

For Jennifer Urioste, graduating from Fulton’s Behavioral Health Treatment Court in April 2025 led to a full-time job in the program as a certified peer support specialist. She’s celebrating her first anniversary in the role this month.

Sober for more than four years, Urioste said she’d also be dead or in prison had she not entered the program in October 2023, a year into her recovery from addiction to opioids and methamphetamine.

The 39-year-old said her mental health problems and substance abuse stemmed from the death of her young daughter when she was 18. She said she’d ended up in jail on drugs charges including possession with intent to distribute.

“For 16 years I was a mess. I had a lot of death in the family and I didn’t know how to handle it,” Urioste told the AJC. “After having criminal records, after having been written off by society in a sense, it’s a blessing to see you can turn that around.”

Both Powell and Urioste resolved their criminal cases through accountability court and said the process has motivated them to build careers helping others. Urioste said she’s about 18 months away from completing a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Georgia State University.

“After all the things I’ve been through, I feel like it’s my purpose to use my past to help other people,” she said. “When you’ve been there in the trenches and made it out, you can relate to someone who’s going through that.”

A wide community impact

Across Georgia, millions of dollars in economic benefits come from accountability courts each year, studies show.

Richardson said each participant of her program represents about $12,000 in savings otherwise spent on their incarceration, and the same is true of other accountability courts statewide.

A 2022 economic impact study by the University of Georgia found each graduate of an accountability court program in the state represents almost $26,000 in benefits when you also consider the effects of graduates reuniting with family members and becoming productive members of society.

That study concluded there was $41.3 million in estimated benefits from Georgia accountability courts in fiscal 2022, when 1,592 participants graduated.

In fiscal 2025, 189 accountability courts around the state served 9,329 participants, of which 1,803 graduated, the Council of Accountability Court Judges reported. It added that 83% of the graduates had jobs.

The council said more than 679,000 associated drug tests were administered during fiscal 2025, with a 91% negative result rate. Additionally, 49 families were reunified and 52 drug-free babies were born to female participants, the council reported.

Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville said accountability courts rely on the dedication of staff, partners and community providers who work together to support participants and uphold the values of accountability and compassion. The county’s accountability court for veterans was its first to achieve model status, in 2024.