This week on Inside Appalachia, we visit a summer camp that’s part of the legacy of Affrilachian poet Norman Jordan. Also, during the Great Depression, Osage, West Virginia was a raucous river town. It’s sleepier now, but music is keeping the magic alive. And, the author of an upcoming graphic novel about pipeline fighters has a message for people outside the region.
This episode of Us & Them was first released in December 2022, and since then has received a regional Edward R. Murrow award from the Radio Television Digital News Association for best podcast. We’ve updated the episode and want to share it with you again now.
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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Joanna Tabit, a Circuit Court Judge in Kanawha County, W.Va., has been at the helm of a juvenile drug court for the past six years.
Courtesy PhotoSheila Vakharia, deputy director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance, a national advocacy organization, describes the organization’s mission as “working to end the war on drugs.”
Courtesy PhotoGregory Howard is chief circuit judge in Cabell County, W.Va. and oversees the Adult Drug Court.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingKerwin Kaye, a scholar who has studied the effectiveness of drug courts, is a professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and author of a book called “Enforcing Freedom,” about drug treatment courts in America.
Credit: Wesleyan UniversityAdam Fowler speaks to those gathered in Judge Gregory Howard’s courtroom in Cabell County, W.Va. 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 said.
Fowler 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,” he said.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingRobin Sullivan, a support specialist with the people in the Cabell County, W.Va. Drug Court Program, graduated from treatment court in 2019. She told Us & Them host Trey Kay 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,” Sullivan said.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingJan Rader, former fire chief in Huntington, W.Va., was a central figure in the critically-acclaimed Netflix documentary “Heroin(e).” She now leads Huntington’s Council for Public Health and Drug Control Policy.
This week on Inside Appalachia, we visit a summer camp that’s part of the legacy of Affrilachian poet Norman Jordan. Also, during the Great Depression, Osage, West Virginia was a raucous river town. It’s sleepier now, but music is keeping the magic alive. And, the author of an upcoming graphic novel about pipeline fighters has a message for people outside the region.
Student News Live, in partnership with the Carter G. Woodson Lyceum, will present a live-streamed Black History Month Town Hall with Rev. Al Sharpton from the Paley Center for Media in New York City. WVPB will share the live stream from 7:30 – 8:15 p.m. Feb. 7 on our YouTube channel.
On this week's encore broadcast of Mountain Stage, host Kathy Mattea welcomes her good friend and fellow country star Suzy Bogguss, French jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel, folk duo Mama’s Broke, singer-songwriter Denitia, and performing songwriter couple Goldpine.