Christian Drug Court Judge Gives Addicted New Hope

Call it a cross between a reality TV show and Judge Judy.

Last Shot with Judge Gunn is a new unscripted television series that aims to show how addiction cases can be successfully overcome and lives transformed with faith and tough love. In the series, Judge Mary Ann Gunn is working to bring drug court to a broader audience and address a national crisis as the Centers for Disease Control has revealed drug deaths are outnumbering traffic fatalities.

Last Shot with Judge Gunn features Gunn’s drug court and the real-life consequences of individuals with criminal charges who are battling drug addiction and alcoholism. Gunn’s own faith and compassion, strict discipline and tough love are a unique combination that has successfully led to more than 1,200 former addicts graduating from her drug court in Fayetteville, Ark. The results are inspirational—93 percent of the people who have successfully completed her program remain productive, clean, sober and crime-free.

Gunn’s goal has been to deliver a message of faith and promise.

“You can’t just throw away people,” says Gunn, noting that people who make it through her program cannot do it without faith. She says many did not have God in their lives before entering the program.

“Churches are there to open their doors and their arms and hearts to people in the drug courts—and give them that avenue. When these people get healthy—when you have someone who has been addicted, received and embraced the treatment and graduated from drug court clean and sober—they will give back like you’ve never seen before,” she adds. “The gratefulness is indescribable.”

Saving someone from a life of addiction—and likely death—is a moral imperative for Judge Gunn. “We are seeking to show that drug court is not about desperation. It’s not about hopelessness. It’s about second chances,” she says. “I consider Last Shot to be an outreach to our country.”