By James Mayse
Messenger-Inquirer
OWENSBORO, Ky. — State legislators — who were concerned about the amount of money the state of Kentucky was spending on prisons — passed a law in 2011 that changed the way the criminal justice system handled people charged with many kinds of drug offenses.
The law reduced incarceration times for people awaiting court action on drug offenses. As an alternative, legislators required that more emphasis be put on providing offenders with substance abuse treatment. The goal of the law was to both reduce prison spending while lowering the odds a person suffering from drug addiction would later return to prison.
When Owensboro substance abuse providers and others held a forum to discuss treatment and recovery Tuesday night, they were asked: Can a person who is in a recovery program only because of a court order really respond to treatment?
RonSonlyn Clark, senior director of substance abuse services at RiverValley Behavioral Health, told a full audience at SS. Joseph and Paul Parish Hall that court-mandated treatment does work and that Kentucky is already seeing success from the 2011 law.
“Over the last 12 months, for every $1 spent on treatment, $5.26 was returned to the state” in reduced spending on prisons, Clark said. Of people with drug offenses who have completed treatment, 67 were employed one year after treatment, 50 percent had not used drugs since treatment and 60 percent had not been arrested for any new offenses, Clark said.
Tuesday’s forum was an educational session for both families of people facing drug charges, for people wanting to learn more about how substance abuse affects their lives and for the community. The Owensboro community has a number of substance abuse programs, where judges can refer people they deem are in need of treatment. The programs are always full and have waiting lists.
While the treatment providers at the forum — along with Daviess Circuit Judge Jay Wethington and the director of the state Department of Corrections’ division of substance abuse services — expressed support for the 2011 law, Wethington said the challenge was making sure the benefits of the law were applied to people who truly needed them.
“There’s a presumption of addiction” in the law, that requires judges to heavily favor treatment to incarceration in drug cases, Wethington said. The challenge judges face is making sure “criminals aren’t taking up spaces” in recovery programs, as opposed to people who truly need substance abuse treatment, Wethington said.
Substance abuse is not just a problem for the addict. Sarah Adkins, director of Owensboro Regional Recovery, told the audience the family also needs to become educated about substance abuse. Kevin Pangborn of the Department of Corrections, said families play a role in helping a person recover from addiction — but said families often have false beliefs about addiction and treatment.
“One of the myths of recovery is a family can send (a member) off for treatment and, when they come back, they’ll be better” without any family support, Pangborn said. A family that is educated about substance abuse and actively supports the family member’s recovery greatly increases the chances the member will succeed, Pangborn said.
On the other hand, some families are part of the problem, Wethington said. In that case, recovering addicts must cut themselves off from family members who enable their behavior or are addicts themselves, Wethington said.
Pangborn said the Department of Corrections has greatly increased the number of spaces available in jail and prison substance abuse treatment programs. In the past, there wasn’t an emphasis on treatment, Pangborn said.
“For years and years and years, there was nothing inherently corrective about corrections,” Pangborn said. “Now, we have almost learned the hard way.” Officials determined prison populations would be reduced “once we did something about addiction,” Pangborn said.
“Treatment is a savings, not a cost” to the state, Pangborn said.
When asked why the public should care about people in prison on drug charges, Pangborn said, “they’re going to come home anyway.”
“We have 19,700 felony inmates and all but about 100 of them (facing life sentences) are going to come home,” Pangborn said.
Wethington said: “Addiction happens to good people” and people of all educational and economic backgrounds. “They need to be back with their families. They need to be taxpayers and productive members of society.”
Harry Pedigo, who attended a substance abuse treatment program and now teaching similar programs, said people with addictions deserve to be welcomed back into the community.
“Everybody I have met in recovery are really good people who made really bad decisions,” Pedigo said. “I think people in recovery are great assets to the community ... I think everyone needs a second chance.”