Elias Chilson battled addiction to Percocets, heroin and meth while also battling alcoholism.
“Hello everyone. My name is Eli. I'm an addict and alcoholic,” he said while addressing a crowd of about 150 at his graduation from Wyoming/Sullivan Counties Treatment Court.
That graduation comes as Chilson is celebrating a major milestone: This summer marks two years of sobriety.
“I am more alive than I have ever felt in my entire life,” Chilson said. “Today, my worst day sober is better than my best day high.”
Treatment court is a court-mandated recovery program with court supervision instead of being incarcerated. The court celebrated Chilson and three other graduates Thursday night in Tunkhannock during the first week of National Recovery Month.
'Addiction can happen to anyone'
2025 marks the program’s 18th year and 130 successful graduates. Participants in the program are sentenced to 30 months of probation, with the possibility of extension if needed.
“Our community has realized that addiction can happen to anyone, not just a certain class of people, and that treating addiction is the way to success through specialty courts,” said Wyoming County President Judge Russell Shurtleff, who oversees the treatment court program.
“Incarcerating individuals doesn't change them and give them the treatment that they need. By going through this program, they see the lives put back together,” Shurtleff said.
Participants attend weekly court sessions, get randomly tested for drug and alcohol use, do community service, attend intensive cognitive behavioral treatment and join community-based recovery groups.
“People think it's easier than being in jail,” said Abbey Geffken, executive director for the Pennsylvania Association of Treatment Court Professionals. “Jail's really easy. You just sit in jail or prison and not do too much. In these programs, you're going to meetings, you're going to treatment, you're going to medical appointments, psychiatric appointments, and doing community service. So it's a lot of work to do, but it's all the work that needs to be done for someone to get into a long-term recovery lifestyle.”
Participants that do not complete their requirements face their original state prison incarceration sentence. There have been 54 cases of that — called "unsuccessful terminations" — under the program.
Officials from the two counties estimate that the program has saved more than $188,000 from participants’ community service and collected more than $882,000 in fines, fees and costs from participants.
“What you see is a life that would have been put in jail with taxpayers paying to feed and house them," Wyoming County District Attorney Joe Peters said. "Now you have someone who is ready to reenter society, not a burden on society, but in fact, contributing, being a good family person, being spiritual, working, paying their taxes. So it's a remarkable transformation,”
State Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne County) also came to the celebration. She advocates for treatment court in the state legislature.
“I chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, and recently Senator Amanda Cappelletti and I introduced legislation to change the term. We've [previously] called them problem solving courts. We've actually changed the term of it, and the governor recently signed the bill to call it treatment court, to reflect the values and represent what it means. For me to be here with these individuals, to hear their stories and what they've had to overcome... witnessing this is a testament to their hard work and tenacity,” Baker said.
'This is the smart-on-crime approach'
Wyoming/Sullivan Counties’ program does not accept violent or sexual offenders.
“This is the smart-on-crime approach,” said Peters. “If you're somebody who's made a mistake, not that we forgive your mistake or encourage you to make another one. You have to be accountable. But if you want to turn your life around, we will help you do that. If you're somebody who's stealing so they can sell something to have the money for their next hit of drugs, we want to break that cycle. We don't want to house you in jail. You don't need to be in jail if you want to get your life in order.”
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Kevin Brobson sees treatment court as an important alternative to incarceration.
“We can't incarcerate ourselves out of mental illness," Brobson said. “We can't incarcerate ourselves out of trauma. We can't incarcerate ourselves out of addiction. So treatment courts provide that additional platform to give people a second chance who deserve it, and it's been very successful throughout the Commonwealth.”
He knows that treatment court can have a negative stigma but pointed out how the program is.
“Treatment court's not right for everybody. It is a challenge. The easy thing is, for these people who suffer from these longstanding problems in their lives, is to go to prison and do their time, but then they come back into their communities, and they recidivate very quickly. They fall back into the same old habits,” Brobson said.
The treatment court graduates
Chilson, Bonnie Davis, Joshua Tyler and Catherine Getz made up the graduating class at Thursday night’s celebration.
Chilson received the Sandy Vieczorek Kindness Award for his hard work in the program and his support of others completing it. The honor is named for a Tunkhannock woman who lost her son to addiction and supported treatment court after his death.
The graduates all credited treatment court with changing their lives for the better.
Davis said she never thought she’d get this far. Before getting sober, she was homeless and had no meaningful relationships. She recently received her three year sobriety chip from Alcoholics Anonymous, or AA.
“I am a mom again, a sister, an aunt, and a major support for anyone struggling,” Davis said. “I can be trusted, respected, and can and am able to have a relationship with the community. I'm productive, can manage money, pay bills, and live a healthy and clean life.”
Tyler’s life changed after getting arrested in 2021.
“While standing there in handcuffs, I was actually relieved, because it was finally over,” he said. “This was the moment of clarity, where I knew things were going to be difficult and hard, but the worst is finally over.”
While uncertain, he chose treatment court over a jail sentence. He’s glad he took that chance.
“In places like treatment centers and jails, more often than not, you meet people who discourage taking treatment court as a program. Most of the time, I heard that I'd probably be better off going to prison,” he said.
Next month, he’ll celebrate three years sober.
“I've been able to do the work that has allowed me to be a person that is able to look myself in the mirror today and not hate the person I see,” he said.
Getz appreciates the life she lives now.
“It gave me a chance to grow, a chance to heal, and, most importantly, a chance to become the very version of myself I can be. Today, I'm not just celebrating graduation, I'm celebrating a life I never thought I could have,” she said.
