In West Virginia and many other states, there’s a court of second chances. It’s a court-monitored drug treatment program designed to help people stay clean and out of jail. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay speaks with West Virginia Circuit Court Judges Joanna Tabit and Gregory Howard and Sheila Vakharia, deputy director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance. He asks: How do these treatment courts work for adults and juveniles?
In West Virginia, there are nearly 50 specialized court programs designed to help teens and adults kick their drug addictions. Drug courts divert people away from incarceration into a rigorous, court-monitored treatment program. They are intense experiences, some more than a year long. Participants are drug tested regularly and require monitoring devices.
Graduation rates across the country show success rates from 29 percent to more than 60 percent. There are many supporters within the justice system, but critics say drug courts only work with the easiest, first-time offenders and don’t take violent offenders or sex offenders. Some drug courts require a guilty plea before someone can participate, which can limit a person’s options if they don’t make it through the program.
In this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay talks with people about this court-designed approach to sobriety that began nearly 50 years ago when the first drug court opened its doors.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Just Trust, the West Virginia Humanities Council, the CRC Foundation and the Daywood Foundation.
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Courtesy
Joanna Tabit is a Circuit Court Judge in Kanawha County, West Virginia. She has been at the helm of a juvenile drug court for the past five years.
Courtesy
Sheila Vakharia is Deputy Director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance, a national advocacy organization. Vakharia describes the organization’s mission as “working to end the war on drugs.”
Trey Kay
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Gregory Howard is Chief Circuit Judge in Cabell County, West Virginia and oversees the Adult Drug Court.
Trey Kay
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Adam Fowler speaks to those gathered in Judge Gregory Howard’s courtroom in Cabell County, West Virginia as he graduates from the Drug Court Program. Fowler told Us & Them host Trey Kay, he had tried to recover from substance use disorder many times before with no success. “I was doing it for all the wrong people. I was just doing it to make the judge happy … to make my probation officer happy. This time I did it for myself.” He told Kay his new commitment to turn his life around came after an overdose that left him in a coma. “I had to learn to walk and talk again. And from that moment on, I just knew there’s more to life than death.”
Trey Kay
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Robin Solomon works as a support specialist with the people in the Cabell County (WV) Drug Court Program. However, back in 2019, she was the one graduating. She told Us & Them host Trey Kay that she started using drugs when she was 13. “My mom is an addict. She was one of the first people who I started using with. And as a child, we don’t ever think that our parents are going to steer us in the wrong direction. But, you know, sometimes people make a choice. Some people, you know, eventually it does become a choice. Some people are born into it.”
Rebecca Kiger
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Netflix
Jan Rader was the former fire chief in Huntington, West Virginia and a central figure in the critically-acclaimed Netflix documentary “Heroin(e).” She now leads Huntington’s Council for Public Health and Drug Control Policy.
Earlier this week the Charleston Gazette-Mail published an investigative report about “pill mills” in southern West Virginia. These are pharmacies that accept and distribute extraordinarily large numbers of prescription painkillers. Some of the doctors who have sent patients to these pharmacies have since been indicted on federal charges related to drug trafficking and abuse.
Kara Lofton sat down with Gazette-Mail reporter Eric Eyre to talk about the current lawsuit surrounding the pharmacies and how they have fueled West Virginia’s drug epidemic.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.
Something has shifted in the way our society thinks about heroin addicts these days. Could it be that smack users are seeming more like “us” and less like “them?”
From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and PRX, this is “Us & Them,” the podcast where we tell the stories about America’s cultural divides.
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This week, “A Change of Tune” host Joni Deutsch interviews Andrew Barr of The Barr Brothers, an up-and-coming Canadian quartet with roots in American folk, African desert, Delta blues and classical string, to say the least. The band’s newest record, Sleeping Operator, just goes to prove that The Barr Brothers are the Ra Ra Riot of transcendental folk. Check out the interview below to learn more about the band, their longform music style and their connections to alt music friends The War on Drugs and of Montreal. If you’re a fan of sprawling soundscapes that are as much warm as they are catchy (see: Bahamas), this interview and music are recommended for you.
The Barr Brothers just released Sleeping Operatorthis past month. Check out their fall/winter tour schedule with Bahamas over on their website, and you can follow Joni Deutsch for more music news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To hear more from The Barr Brothers, tune in to “A Change of Tune” this Saturday at 10 PM EST on West Virginia Public Radio.
