VALDOSTA – The Lowndes County DUI Court recently attended the Annual Council of Accountability Court Conference in Athens, GA from September 16 through September 18. This year’s conference was titled: Georgia’s Accountability Courts: Growing in the Right Direction. At the conference, the team members attended both plenary sessions and breakout group sessions covering many current topics, as well as sessions specific to certain types of courts and particular processional disciplines.
Governor Nathan Deal spoke at the event on Tuesday morning and announced that the State of Georgia now has an accountability court operating in every judicial circuit with a total of 156 accountability courts in our State. The State’s goal is to continue to expand the number of participants in each court and to increase the number of accountability courts in Georgia.
The Lowndes County DUI Court has been in operation since January 2017 and is a voluntary, post-conviction, treatment-based program for those who have been convicted multiple times for driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. The Lowndes County DUI Court program offers enhanced supervision, counseling, and treatment to help participants function in the community while still holding the participant accountable. The goal of DUI Court is to protect public safety by strictly adhering to the highly successful Georgia DUI court model established by Georgia law and the Council of Accountability Court Judges of Georgia which focuses on participant accountability and long-term treatment. DUI courts provide more comprehensive and closer supervision than traditional court probationary sentences. For more information about the program, please contact Court Coordinator Stacey Bass at 229-671-2895.
PHOTO: From left to right: Attorney Richard Shelton, Counselor Laci Rankhorn (Redirect Counseling Services, Inc), Court Coordinator Stacey Bass, Probation Officer Kayla Porter (Lowndes County Probation) , Judge Ellen Golden (Lowndes County State Court), Assistant Solicitor General Cindy Welch, Director Ferlisha Rountree(Lowndes County Probation)
