(Cleveland) – The 79th Graduation Ceremony of the Judge Larry A. Jones Drug Court, now under the direction of Cleveland Municipal Court Administrative and Presiding Judge Michelle D. Earley will take place at 4:00 p.m., Thursday, April 24, 2025 at Community Assessment and Treatment Services (CATS), located at 8411 Broadway Avenue in Cleveland.
Contact: Ed Ferenc, Public Information Officer
Cleveland Municipal Court [email protected]
216 664 6787 216 789 2597
(Cleveland) – The 79th Graduation Ceremony of the Judge Larry A. Jones Drug Court, now under the direction of Cleveland Municipal Court Administrative and Presiding Judge Michelle D. Earley will take place at 4:00 p.m., Thursday, April 24, 2025 at Community Assessment and Treatment Services (CATS), located at 8411 Broadway Avenue in Cleveland.
With 18 graduates, the total number of people who have successfully completed the program since it began in 1998 will be 1,967.
The keynote speaker will be Sidney Perkins who has worked as a counselor at CATS for the past eight years and will be celebrating 14 years of sobriety in June. Perkins said he experimented with drugs as a teenager and soon became addicted.
“I took to seeking something outside of myself to make me okay inside myself,” he said. Perkins is now happy to put addiction and the criminal justice system behind him.
“I got tired of dealing with the consequences of always starting my life over and I am now a proud alumni of CATS.”
Participants in the Judge Larry A. Jones Drug Court generally spend 12 to 20 months in the program. Longer cases may occur due to the fact that opiate addicts generally need more treatment time.
On October 26, 2022, the Greater Cleveland Drug Court was renamed the Judge Larry A. Jones Drug Court in honor of its founder and former Cleveland Municipal Court judge. Specialized dockets like the Judge Larry A. Jones Drug Court are dedicated to handling offenses related to substance abuse and use a combination of techniques for holding the offenders accountable while also addressing the underlying causes of their behavior.
There are more than 150 specialized dockets in Ohio. In 2014, the docket was certified by the Supreme Court of Ohio. The Drug Court Program began in the Cleveland Municipal Court in 1998 and has since expanded to other parts of Cuyahoga County.