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A bill that would establish a state family recovery court fund is heading to the floor of the Indiana House of Representatives after unanimously passing through committee Monday.
House Bill 1107 would create a fund that would continuously support family recovery courts in the state.
There are currently 23 certified family recovery courts in Indiana.
“The passage of this bill will allow continued growth for counties seeking to establish new courts of their own,” the bill’s author, Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, D-Fishers, said to the House Judiciary Committee.
A family recovery court targets cases of abuse or neglect where the primary parent or caregiver suffers from a substance use disorder or co-occurring disorders.
The state’s Office of Judicial Administration certifies the problem-solving courts.
“Research has shown that our courts are reducing recidivism and lowering costs for taxpayers by reducing court hearings and the use of prisons as the primary place for recovery,” Garcia Wilburn said. “However, the cost we can never quantify is alive, saved, families restored, and people finding their purpose again.”
Mark Fairchild, executive director of the Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana, testified in support of the bill.
“By creating the fund for the family recovery courts, it really just allows a stable place for funding to be on board and ready for when we have counties expanding and we’re creating family recovery courts,” Fairchild said.
Montgomery Superior Court Judge Daniel Petrie presides over a family recovery court.
He said the county has had seven recovery court graduates with 10 current participants.
Montgomery County’s court was established in 2022.
Petrie noted that two of the moms who graduated gave birth to substance-free babies and the Indiana Department of Child Services never had to get involved in the children’s lives.
“Which goes to cost savings that can be involved in these programs,” Petrie said.
Family recovery court graduate Brittany Jackson, who did not specify her county of residence, also testified in front of the committee.
Jackson said addiction had been trapped her for years in a cycle of pain and hopelessness.
In June 2022, DCS removed Jackson’s son from her care.
“That moment shattered me,” Jackson said. “I knew I had to change, not just for myself, but for him.”
She said her life changed when she started family recovery court a few months later.
Jackson described the court as a lifeline and something that her a community.
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