FLOWOOD, Miss. — Courtney Estes returned to the Community Work Center in Flowood as the keynote speaker for the latest alcohol and drug program graduation, crediting the facility with helping her recovery and saying she is preparing to be ordained as a minister next month.
Estes, who said she was an inmate at the Flowood facility eight years ago after a conviction for possession of methamphetamine, told graduates she came back to inspire and motivate them to continue working through recovery. “Eight years ago, I was right where you are now. I lived in Room 3 right over there,” she said, pointing behind her. “I am blessed to come back to pour into these women the knowledge and show them they are not alone. They can be successful, and they can be a light to others.”
Program leader George Schmaus said the Flowood program is the only alcohol and drug, or A&D, program in the prison system that uses peer facilitators to help inmates through the course. Schmaus noted the class began with 21 inmates and that graduating is a significant accomplishment.
A class of 13 women completed the 25-week rehabilitation program. Many of the graduates are incarcerated on drug convictions. Among them were Melissa Ann Buse and Emily Stuart. Buse, 59, said the program helped her focus on the root cause of her addiction and its effect on her family. “I never realized how serious my addictions were until I started recovery,” Buse said. She is serving a 20-year sentence for possession of a controlled substance in Stone County. Stuart, who is serving a 10-year sentence for identity theft, said she enrolled thinking the program was not relevant because she had never used drugs. “I was not a user, but I was a by-product of it,” she said.
Estes described a long period of drug use that escalated to methamphetamine and led to pregnancy, divorce and abusive relationships before her arrest and conviction on possession with intent to distribute charges. “I really don’t know how I even got here because I came in the door high. The Lord paved the way for me,” she said, adding that she changed her attitude, completed programs and took sobriety seriously while at Flowood. “Whenever I graduated A&D, that was the first thing I had ever graduated from in my entire life,” Estes said, describing how earning the A&D diploma helped her rebuild her life and relationships after release.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more details emerge.
