MERIT court program helps individuals move past drug-related issues

The bare statistics weave a morbid tale. Preventable drug overdose deaths in the United States, since 1999, have jumped 792 percent. According to national statistics, the overdose rate is 21.6 deaths per 100,000 residents.

From the epidemic of painkiller addiction in the early 2000s, to the resurgence of heroin addiction in the 2010s, and the invasion of fentanyl and synthetic drugs in the 2020s, the resulting addiction has left a trail of death, ruined lives, and broken families in its wake.

The problem exists in every community, from big cities to rural towns. Mount Vernon is no different, except for one thing: Mount Vernon is finding a way to fight back effectively.

The Mount Vernon Municipal Court has the MERIT Program (Mandated Education and Referral Into Treatment), which is a specialized drug court program, designed to help individuals in the criminal justice system with substance‐abuse issues. It’s an alternative to traditional probation or incarceration that focuses on treatment and recovery, rather than punishment alone.

The purpose of the program is meant to help drug offenders address underlying addiction issues through structured treatment, accountability, and supervision. It aims to reduce recidivism and help participants become productive members of the community. MERIT has received state certification from the Ohio Supreme Court’s Commission on Specialized Dockets, indicating it meets certain standards for a specialized court focused on rehabilitation.

“Unlike a lot of courts, we don’t take the best of the worst,” said MERIT coordinator Joel Carter. ”We take the worst of the worst.”

Participants in MERIT must engage in licensed drug and alcohol treatment programs tailored to their needs. They must also undergo mental health assessments to determine any co-occurring needs.

Of course, there is frequent and random drug testing for all participants, to ensure that they are following through with the program. Participating in weekly support groups and structure activities builds recovery skills and accountability. Participants may perform community service as part of their obligations in many cases.

MERIT is not just a singular effort. It is part of a web of area agencies and organizations, designed to get someone back on the right track again.

“It comes with collaborative support,” said Carter. “The Health Department, the Freedom Center, BHP (Behavioral Healthcare Partners), Knox Recovery, Hard Knox Behavioral Health, Touchpoint, Opportunity Knox, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the Public Defender’s office, are all involved in the treatment team for these individuals. We run about a 70 percent success rate, which is about double the national average.”

It is the teamwork between MERIT and these agencies that help account for MERIT’s high success rate.

“I think it starts at the base level, which is the probation department,” said Carter. “We’ve got four social workers up here, out of five officers. So, we care. That is the most important point is that we actually care about each of these individuals that come through and work on themselves in this program. Then, that overlaps into the outlying agencies.”

The minimum time in the program is typically around 11 months, but many participants remain engaged for about 16 months as they progress through different phases and meet recovery milestones.

“We invest a lot of time and effort into these individuals,” said Carter. “They thrive on the positive approach.”

Carter jokingly says that he is, “The most stubborn man you have ever met.” He has doggedly chased after the most difficult offenders, sometimes for several years, just to get them to join MERIT.

“For some reason, they didn’t give up on me,” said Knox County resident Braylyn Danielle. “I was a ‘chronic relapser.’ My relapses revolved around trauma, death or loss. That was always something that I used as a crutch to relapse on.”

Danielle lost her husband, T.J. Carpenter, to an overdose death in 2023. After over a decade of addiction, her life was bottoming out. Soon after, she relapsed into opioids and had a stroke. By that time, she had been in drug court for two years.

“They (Child Protective Services) took my kids from me, while I was in the hospital,” said Danielle. “I already knew that was going to happen. When I was in the emergency room, the day I relapsed and had my stroke, I told Joel (Carter) that I wanted to go to rehab. He said, ‘That’s not even an option. You’re going there, whether you want to or not.’”

With her husband dead, her children were removed to a safe place. In the meantime, she was recovering from a stroke, heading for rehab, and now, facing a parole violation for her relapse.

There was only one way out. Danielle had to come up with a plan for her life. She carefully drew it up, while in rehab. It was a list of what she wanted to do and accomplish in the upcoming year.

“My time with MERIT Court was full of ups and downs, but it did save my life,” said Danielle. “It was also really being honest with myself. Like when T.J. died and I relapsed, I think the biggest thing was that I reached out and was honest to multiple people and have been ever since. Before then, I was a master manipulator. To see the transformation, from then to now, is incredible.”

Municipal Court Judge John Thatcher didn’t sugarcoat anything, when Danielle appeared in his courtroom after her relapse. This further forced her to think about how her actions affected her children’s lives.

Danielle’s new path of recovery soon led her to an understanding employer.

“Eventually, I came across my current job, which is at Bullock's,” said Danielle, who is now a manager. “I’m thriving. This job helped save me. They weren’t even sure about them helping me to get a job there. Now, I realize, I was lucky.”

MERIT is more than just a probation alternative — it’s a structured recovery pathway that combines legal oversight with therapeutic support to help people overcome addiction and reduce future involvement with the justice system.

Prior to MERIT, Thatcher would watch the same individuals return to his courtroom, over and over, for the same type of offenses.

“It was an exercise in futility,” said Thatcher. “Seeing the same people, over and over again, because they were addicted or they were alcoholics. It did absolutely no good to keep throwing them into jail. The jail was overcrowded and all we were doing was warehousing the problem. We just put the problem into jail, until it came out and got into trouble again.”

Of course, each time, the problem (and the consequences) would grow worse for the individual, the family, and the community.

“From my perspective, (MERIT) boils down to saving people’s lives,” said Thatcher. “Also, it’s just a smarter way to do criminal justice. Lots of people, who commit crimes are not necessarily bad people, but they are addicted. They’ve had difficult lives and really don’t know a different way.”

The help and support that many of these individuals get from MERIT is the first positive help they have ever had.

“Once they start getting some help and support, they start realizing that they’re not living the life that they want to live,” said Thatcher. “There’s people around them that support them and show them they can live life a different way. They can get an education. They can get a job. They can take care of their families. They can have relationships with people that cut them off because of their addiction. They can handle problems that they never used to be able to handle without getting into criminal trouble. It’s one of the best criminal programs I’ve ever been part of.”

Danielle has another way to look at her success story.

“When another day passes that T.J. is gone, that’s also another day of sobriety for me, another day I’m present with my kids being mom, and being genuine, loved, trusted,” she said. “I’ll never understand why people get taken away to open our eyes to bigger things going on in our lives. They call it a wake up call, unfortunately. I will miss T.J. for the rest of my days and will always wonder, ‘Why?’ but I know he’s with me and I know he’s proud of me. Nothing lost is gone forever.”