Pubdate: Sun, 29 Feb 2004
Source: Daily News (KY)
Copyright: 2004 News Publishing LLC
Contact:  http://www.bgdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1218
Author: Hayli Fellwock

RECOVERY HOUSES LOSE THEIR BUSINESS

Court Will Forego Non-Licensed

Citing concerns about a possible lack of regulation, Warren Circuit Court 
judges have decided to "just say no" to non-licensed drug and alcohol 
recovery homes. That leaves the state-licensed Phoenix House Center on 
Parkside Drive, which takes in women and their children, as the only 
current alternative to incarceration for people with drug and alcohol charges.

"At this time, there's not a very good alternative for men," Circuit Judge 
John Grise said. "But perhaps that will change as some of these places 
become state-certified and licensed."

House of Miracles on Cemetery Road and Red Door Recovery Home on Park 
Street, both of which house only males, are in the process of obtaining 
state licenses. Red Door owner Christan Hache expressed frustration with 
the negative reputation of recovery homes, which she felt was brought on by 
the poor management of only a few.

Hache, who earned degrees in criminology and sociology from Western 
Kentucky University, said she felt compelled to help people while working 
in her field of interest.

"I had a friend who stayed in one of the recovery homes and it wasn't a 
good experience for him," she said. "It was dirty and not regulated very 
well. The problem I have found is because of the stigmas attached to 
recovery homes, people automatically assume I am just as bad as the others."

There are about 12 drug and alcohol recovery homes in Warren County, with 
at least three owned or operated by former felony convicts. Most of the 
individuals' original drug charges are at least a year old.

These numbers are a matter of concern for local law enforcement, judges and 
prosecutors in the Warren County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office. However, 
some in the recovery-house business argue that people who have experienced 
life in recovery are better equipped to help those dealing with similar 
addictions.

"Most of my directors are chosen after going through the home, knowing what 
we are all about," said Terry Caffee, who owns five New Directions recovery 
homes in Bowling Green.

"Do I not deserve an opportunity at what my goal is?" said House of 
Miracles owner and operator Roosevelt Pearson, whose most recent drug 
charges were in 2000. "I am not saying someone (should) open a house who 
has recently been involved in drugs, but someone who has turned his life 
around."

Shawn Thompson, who said he has worked about five months as director of 
House of Mended Ways on Stubbins Street, was indicted in October for 
possession of a controlled substance and persistent felony offender due to 
previous drug charges. The charges on Thompson's indictment originated in 
late March.

Senior Judge Tom Lewis, who was then circuit judge, probated Thompson 
several times last year and ordered him into a recovery home, most recently 
in late November.

"I have been clean for a year and four months. Those charges are old," 
Thompson said. "I am just trying to do my best to keep straight myself and 
I do my best to help everyone else."

There were at least 13 drug-related incidents at various local recovery 
homes over the last two years, with at least four arrests resulting, 
according to Bowling Green Police Department and Warren County Drug Task 
Force records.

Bowling Green officers visited House of Miracles in December to arrest a 
recently indicted drug offender, though Pearson said the man was drug-free 
for eight months before the arrest. The original drug charge was from a 
time when the man was living at another recovery home that had since closed 
its doors, he said.

"When the house closed down, we got a lot of the people and what came with 
them was the behavior and the things they had been doing," Pearson said, 
adding that the house resident was arrested without trouble.

Two more drug-related incidents occurred at House of Mended Ways. According 
to Drug Task Force records, one house resident was arrested in October 
along with his friend when detectives discovered various drug items in a 
truck the men had parked outside the house. The truck contained marijuana, 
methamphetamine ingredients such as lithium and pseudoephedrine, and 
meth-lab components such as butane fuel, starter fluid and tanks filled 
with anhydrous ammonia.

"It was basically a lab that was not operational, but it was still as 
dangerous as one that was going," DTF Detective Gary Spillman said.

Thompson said the House of Mended Ways had no affiliation with the incident.

"Some guys pulled up in a truck with some meth lab stuff in it, and there 
was nothing in this house," he said.

Bowling Green police arrested a House of Mended Ways resident in November 
after receiving an anonymous tip from outside Bowling Green. The man was 
arrested at the recovery home when officers discovered he was in possession 
of cocaine, drug paraphernalia and 199 Dilaudid pills. The man, who was 
originally court-ordered to stay in the recovery home, was probated and 
re-ordered on Nov. 25 to stay in a recovery home for an additional six months.

Thompson did not remember anything about that incident. Attempts were 
unsuccessful to contact House of Mended Ways owner Eugene Meredith, who was 
indicted in February 2003 for possession of a controlled substance, 
trafficking a controlled substance, receiving stolen property valued over 
$300, and persistent felony offender due to previous drug charges. All 
charges on Meredith's indictment originated last January.

"(House of Miracles) is located right in the middle of where we had bought 
drugs several times, so it's not in the best part of town for someone 
trying to recover from an addiction," Spillman said. "There's just no 
credibility as far as I can see. Even the somewhat legitimate (recovery 
homes), we've received reports of drugs being sold there and we've even 
received complaints of some manufacturing going on.

"Another thing is these homes were set up for people who were users and 
addicts, and the people being put in there were traffickers."

Lewis said he made rulings on a "case-by-case basis" while on the Warren 
Circuit bench, and sometimes that involved ordering people charged with 
drug trafficking to stay in a recovery home. He said the homes offer a 
structured environment outside of jail, which he said was "terribly 
crowded," with very little drug and alcohol treatment available.

"A lot of people are charged with trafficking in drugs because they have 
sold one pill or a very small amount of drugs," Lewis said. "They are 
guilty. There's no question they did it, but why did they do it? They did 
it so they could make more money to buy drugs for themselves.

"All of them, virtually, have sold drugs to their friends and relatives, 
but they didn't do it to further drug traffic in this country, but to feed 
their own habit. They are not drug dealers in the normal sense of the word. 
They are poor people," he added. "The real problem is not that they are 
drug dealers, but that they are drug addicts. You put them in jail for a 
year and they get out and they are still addicts and the first thing they 
are going to do is go do drugs. The only way to combat that is to try to 
teach them why they should not be a drug addict and teach them that it's 
their choice."

Circuit Court Judge Steve Wilson, who took the bench last December when 
Lewis became a senior judge, said he views the matter differently.

"It is one thing for you to have the disease - it is another thing to 
spread the disease," Wilson said. "It is like putting the fox in the henhouse."

Lewis said he understood, but did not necessarily agree with, the position 
taken by Wilson and Grise.

"Probably the smarter thing to do is not support those homes that are not 
state-sanctioned, but of course philosophically I disagree with that," 
Lewis said.

Currently considered recovery homes, Red Door and House of Miracles will be 
reclassified as residential transitional living facilities by the Office of 
the Inspector General in Frankfort after becoming state-licensed. They will 
pay a $155 annual fee to the state government and will also be subject to 
annual inspections by the state to ensure they meet guidelines on smoke 
detectors, pest control, cleanliness and not overcrowding.

Caffee said he has no current plans to apply for a state license for his 
five New Directions locations, but wants to take a closer look at how 
residential transitional living facilities operate.

"Our recovery homes have never made a decision to be fully licensed," he 
said. "Are we over-governed now? Do you think the state is going to come in 
and do all this for nothing? It is taxpayers' money, and if our success 
rate is good and we are not taking one red cent of the taxpayers' money, 
then those in the treatment facility are 100 percent paying their own way."

Caffee referred to his homes as "self-regulated" facilities, with their own 
sets of rules, including a curfew time and employment requirements. New 
Directions uses a "10-demerit rule," he said, where residents who get 10 
demerits within 30 days for breaking house rules can be evicted. However, 
Caffee said evicted residents can plead their cases before the New 
Directions Board of Directors.

Like Caffee, Kreisler said New Beginnings is administered by a board of 
directors, which consists primarily of people who have experienced the drug 
and alcohol recovery process. Kreisler said New Beginnings also has no 
current plans to become state-licensed.

"We're not concerned with that a bit," he said, adding that most New 
Directions residents are referred by local drug treatment centers. "They 
are talking about people who are court-ordered for whatever purpose, but we 
are not dependent on that. All our people are there because they are 
interested in a supportive environment to maintain a drug-free or 
alcohol-free lifestyle.

"I'm not saying we're not going to apply," Kreisler added. "At this point, 
it doesn't seem it would make any difference to us one way or the other. 
We've got enough people who are interested just in and of themselves."

No city ordinance requires that rehab houses be registered or licensed, 
city License Division Manager David Lyne said.

Rental properties with more than two residential units are required to have 
a business license and report rental income to the city, he said. However, 
if buildings are already registered as rental property, owners are not 
required to specify who they are renting to.

Nonprofit organizations are not required to get a city license to rent, and 
Lyne didn't know of any recovery homes specifically registered with the city.

The Kentucky Department of Corrections sends out requests for proposals for 
halfway houses, which include requirements for qualification. Those consist 
primarily of physical factors, such as the available square footage of 
living space and number of meals the house will provide per day, said Pam 
Trautner, spokeswoman for the Justice Cabinet.

The department contracts with, but does not oversee, halfway houses for 
inmates and parolees convicted of various crimes, including drug offenses, 
said Maribeth Schmitt, assistant director of Local Facilities for the 
department. Halfway houses are mostly in major metropolitan areas, she said.

"The Department of Corrections does not contract any such house in Bowling 
Green," Schmitt said. "We do not contract to house any of our clients 
there, nor do we regulate them."

Wilson said recovery homes are "theoretically supposed to have more 
structure" than facilities categorized as halfway houses.

"However, there is no state licensing and no regulation (for recovery 
homes), and it doesn't require any special training to run them," Wilson 
said. "I want to know there is a regulatory agency overlooking these homes 
before I start putting people in them."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman