Drug Program Going Well, Jailer Says
By Mary Music, Staff Writer, Appalachian News-Express
June 15, 2006

Officials with the Office of Drug Control Policy, an extension of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, presented a $60,753 check to the Pike County Detention Center yesterday for their in-house drug treatment program.

Pike County Jailer Rodney Scott said 13 inmates are currently doing well in the six-month drug treatment program. Counselors from WestCare, a non-profit organization that's running the city's homeless shelter, are on site at the jail five days a week, conducting group meetings with the inmates, who are battling drug addictions.

"Everything seems to be going real well," Scott said. "All the inmates love it. They're more respectable to one another and to the guards."

Pike County parent Bea Robinette, the mother of two men currently enrolled in the program, spoke during the presentation yesterday. Prior to the meeting, she told officials with the Office of Drug Control Policy that it was the "best thing to come to Pike County."

Her comments followed those of Gary Ritchie, a recovering addict from Jackson County who now counsels people at WestCare. Ritchie gave a heart-felt speech about his addiction to drugs and his journey to recovery. He asked people not to judge him by his past actions, but by the man that he has become today. He received a standing ovation from a crowd of Pike County and state officials.

Though he had a "normal" childhood, Ritchie began drinking and smoking marijuana with his friends when he was a teenager. At the age of 20, he said he began using cocaine and pills. Ritchie said he nearly destroyed his life at the age of 25, when he became addicted to meth.

"Being addicted to meth didn't allow me to be a husband," he said. "Being addicted to meth didn't allow me to be a good father. I wasn't much use to anybody, including myself."

Ritchie talked about staying awake for four to five days at a time while on a methamphetamine high, then sleeping for days on end when he came off the drugs. The habit prevented him from keeping a job, so he turned to selling drugs to support the addiction and his other financial responsibilities.

Like many addicts, Ritchie was "in and out" of jail. He said a seven-month sentence didn't keep him from jumping back into the drug addiction cycle as soon as he was released. He was arrested again four months after his release from that incarceration.

"I knew I could be better than that. ...I took a look at myself and realized I needed to make some changes," he said.

The change in his life came after he signed up for help through WestCare's Ashcamp facility. Counselors walked him through a 12-step program modeled after the Alcoholics Anonymous program. He says it put structure back into his life and helped him set and meet goals, like getting his GED, that he would have passed up if he would have remained an addict.

"Without treatment it only gets worser. That's what happened in my case, it kept getting worser," he said.

Teresa Barton, Executive Director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, talked about a drug summit which revealed that less than 20 percent of Kentucky inmates were able to receive the drug treatment help they needed. Though many residential treatment facilities are strung across the state, many of them have long waiting lists for participants. About 70 percent of those incarcerated are involved with some type of substance abuse, she said, pointing out that many of those inmates are repeat offenders. The summit addressed a three-prong approach to drug treatment: Education, law enforcement, and treatment.

"I know in this county it is truly needed," Barton said. "Substance abuse is hurting the community and preventing individuals from reaching their full potential. ...We have no throw-away citizens," she continued, referring to statements previously made by Gov. Ernie Fletcher. "We have no one we can let fall by the wayside."

Brig. Gen. Norman E. Arflack, who replaced Steve Pence as secretary of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet this month, said the drug treatment program, which should be expanding into Floyd County soon, has given authorities the opportunity to "rescue" people that others "have given up on."

"You can't arrest people out of this problem," said Arflack, who took part in the drug summit and worked in the military and law enforcement as an investigator for several years.

Pike County Commonwealth's Attorney Rick Bartley, Circuit Judge Eddy Coleman and County Attorney Keith Hall, who were in attendance along with several other county officials, praised the program.

Hall also applauded the cooperation between different governmental agencies, like law enforcement, judicial branches, and correctional agencies, that are working together to make the program work.

"Everything is clicking so good right now," he said. "I'm so proud of our county."

The money will be used to pay counselors and purchase supplies for the program, Scott said.