WILKES COUNTY, N.C. — The Marshall Project reported June 17 that plans to launch a new recovery court in Wilkes County were derailed after the U.S. Department of Justice abruptly rescinded its funding this spring—just as the program was preparing to open.
The court was designed to address the region’s opioid epidemic by providing treatment, services, and an opportunity to avoid prison for people with substance use disorders. But the effort stalled before hearing a single case when the Justice Department canceled its $900,000 grant to Project Lazarus, a local nonprofit that had partnered with the court system.
According to The Marshall Project, the recovery court was a collaborative initiative involving the chief judge, attorneys, and Project Lazarus. It was meant to “support recovery and connect people with services, like housing or insurance, in criminal cases tied to substance use.”
Recovery courts aim to reduce substance use and alleviate the burden of repeat cases on the judicial system. Funding for the Wilkes County court would have covered a court coordinator and peer support specialists for approximately 150 participants annually.
But before the court could open in April, the funding was revoked—one of hundreds of cancellations initiated under President Donald Trump’s administration. The Justice Department told Project Lazarus the grant “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities,” The Marshall Project reported.
Fred Wells Brason II, president and CEO of Project Lazarus, appealed the decision. However, the Justice Department declined to comment on the situation, according to the report.
The decision to cut funding has raised questions about the administration’s public safety priorities. Trump won Wilkes County by nearly 60 percentage points, and the court was developed in close partnership with law enforcement. Just weeks before the cuts, the federal government had extended a public health emergency declaration in response to opioid deaths.
Amy Solomon, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and a former assistant attorney general overseeing Justice Department grants, told The Marshall Project she “couldn’t explain why the Wilkes County grant would be cut.” Typically, grants are only revoked due to mismanagement and only after engaging with recipients, she said.
Rather than eliminating entire programs, the late-April cuts targeted specific grants. While Wilkes County’s funding was canceled, other recipients under the same initiative retained theirs. Solomon noted that although new administrations often shift grant priorities, ending funding midstream or making selective cuts is highly unusual.
An analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice found that more than $88 million in initial grant awards for substance use and mental health programs were cut.
Wilkes County, home to about 66,000 people, is known for its stock car racing, Americana music festival, and as the original home of Lowe’s. In the early 2000s, it had one of the nation’s highest opioid overdose rates but has since made significant progress in reducing overdose deaths.
The planned recovery court would have required participants to attend two court dates per month, undergo regular drug testing, and meet with probation officers. Eligibility was limited to individuals with nonviolent charges connected to substance use—not drug sales. While failed drug tests would not lead to immediate expulsion, the court team was still developing guidelines for incremental consequences, such as weekend jail stays or removal from the program. That work has now stalled.
Ericka Minton, a peer support specialist at Project Lazarus, was expected to work directly with court participants. She currently helps incarcerated people contact attorneys, enroll in detox and treatment programs, secure transitional housing, and access food assistance. If someone is ineligible for food stamps due to past convictions, she connects them to food pantries and even provides transportation to appointments.
“So it’s pretty much their whole life—whatever they’re trying to do, we support them in doing,” Minton told The Marshall Project.
The recovery court model dates back to the mid-1990s. North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby has publicly supported the approach. In a medical journal article, he wrote, “Can the courts help justice-involved individuals recover from these problems? The answer is ‘yes.’” He also encouraged the creation of a recovery court in Wilkes County.
The state once funded recovery courts in some counties, but that ended in 2011 due to budget shortfalls. Since then, counties have relied on a patchwork of federal grants, nonprofit contributions, alcohol tax revenue, and private donations. Marvin Swartz, a psychiatrist and researcher at Duke University, told The Marshall Project that this system places a heavy burden on local governments to secure funding.
Swartz and other researchers wrote in a 2021 journal article that “public funding for treatment courts has been unstable and insufficient.”
Brason said Project Lazarus is now seeking alternative funding sources, but replacing the federal grant will be difficult. At a January county meeting, Chief District Court Judge Robert Crumpton summed up the situation: “Newby told me to do it, and they said, but guess what, you don’t get any money,” The Marshall Project reported.
Scott Burris, director of Temple University’s Center for Public Health Law Research, said in the article that the federal government has historically provided both funding and expertise to address complex issues like opioid addiction. He emphasized the need to coordinate law enforcement, public health, and harm reduction efforts.
Burris has written about the importance of a “whole-of-government” response to opioid use and described the funding cut as “monstrous.” He warned: “If you cut things with a chainsaw, you make big gross cuts and that’s that. It will kill people.”
Congress allocates the money for Justice Department grants. In April, Sen. Cory Booker and several other Democrats sent a letter to the department requesting an explanation for the cuts and asking that funding be restored. Rep. Virginia Foxx, whose district includes Wilkes County, has generally supported federal spending reductions and did not respond to The Marshall Project’s request for comment.
As Project Lazarus appeals the decision, Wilkes County plans to launch a new diversion program in July. According to The Marshall Project, the program will allow officers to refer individuals to peer support services instead of arresting or charging them.
Minton, reflecting on her own experience with addiction, said no one ever offered her support or resources. “Now,” she told The Marshall Project, “she provides that support to others.”
