Eighth Judicial District Criminal Court Judge E. Shayne Sexton has been honored for the work he has endeavored to do in the lives of people and communities affected by substance abuse.

Sexton was honored at the Tennessee Association of Recovery Court Professionals’ 14th Annual Recovery Court Conference recently held in Murfreesboro. He received the 2018 Making a Difference Award at the three day conference.

Sexton has been the criminal court judge in the Eighth Judicial District since 1998. He began the Eighth Judicial District Recovery Court in September 2005 in an attempt to break the cycle of seeing the same people coming into his courtroom repeatedly on drug related or drug fueled charges.

“Sexton has made a real difference in countless lives through his work with the recovery court,” said Sandy Webber, eighth district’s recovery court coordinator. New participants are inspired to better their lives by  Sexton’s personal interest in their well-being and as a result of his signature “grit talks.”

“He tells them it doesn’t matter where you come from, what has happened, whether you’re educated or not, if you have the grit, that is the resolve, fortitude, determination, and tenacity, then you can change your life and beat addiction,” Webber said.

Upon accepting the award Sexton said the work recovery court professionals do each day “is a labor of love, and it requires all of us to give everything that we’ve got.”

All who have been inspired to start recovery courts have done so because they realized “the old way wasn’t working; it just wasn’t doing the job,” he said.

The “new way” that recovery courts point to involves “building up our participants and hoping that they accept responsibility” and do the heavy lifting once they are enrolled in a program.

“I’m honored,” Sexton said. “I look around the room and I see tons of judges who deserve the award much more than I do.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 12/24/2018-6AM)