DANDRIDGE, Tenn. — Rachel Solomon and judges hadn’t been on the best of terms. Then Judge O. Duane Slone “dumbfounded” her.
Solomon was given her first Percocet at age 12 by a family member with a medicine cabinet full. It made her feel numb, she said. “Nothing hurt.” By 17, she was taking 80-milligram OxyContins. A decade later, she was introduced to heroin.
During those years, Solomon was in and out of trouble with the law.
Then, five years ago, at 32, she arrived in Slone’s courtroom, pregnant, fearing the worst. But the state circuit court judge saw promise. He ruled that Solomon would serve jail time for an outstanding warrant for aggravated burglary and then would be placed in a program for pregnant or parenting women recovering from addiction. She would retain custody of her son, Brantley, now 4.
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