Middlesex Vicinage Recovery Court to Celebrate 23rd Graduation

The Middlesex Vicinage will hold its 23rd recovery court graduation on Monday, May 1 at 10 a.m. 

Criminal Presiding Judge Colleen Flynn will welcome the graduating class and give introductory remarks. Superior Court Judge Robert J. Jones, who presides over the vicinage’s recovery court, will officiate and speak about the long-term success of the program. 

The keynote speaker is Valerie Seymoure, a minister and author of “Fish Heads & Grits,” a book of stories about encouragement and hope. Seymoure also helps people with addiction, homelessness, domestic violence, and other life struggles through her organization Beauty for Ashes.

The Judiciary’s recovery court program operates within the Superior Court to address non-violent drug addicted offenders. The program requires completion of several phases of intensive drug and alcohol treatment and recovery. Recovery court programs are rigorous, requiring intensive probation supervision, treatment, frequent drug testing, and regularly scheduled court appearances.

Since the vicinage’s recovery court program began in September 2004, more than 550 participants have graduated, and more than 30 children of participants have been born drug-free. There are more than 225 participants in the program.

The ceremony will be hybrid, with an audience in the jury assembly room of the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick and live streamed to the public on the New Jersey courts channels under Middlesex.