The Program: Cumberland County's Treatment Court

DAN'S STORY

'There's not a lot I would change in the program'

For years, trust was a foreign concept to Dan Cutchall.

Drugs were the reality.

They were the core of his existence, above his friends, above his
family.

The craving for them drove him to lie, to steal, even to rob a
bank.

"I started at age 13. I started smoking marijuana," said Cutchall, 43,
of North Middleton Twp., a Carlisle suburb. "It progressed from there.

"It was 27 years of chaos."

The upheaval is over now, Cutchall said.

God is in his life. He cherishes his family. He is sure that his drug
abuse is over.

Cutchall is one of the first three graduates of Cumberland County's
Treatment Court, a high-intensity program aimed at bringing high-risk
drug and alcohol abusers back from the brink.

He stood at the brink for years.

He got kicked out of the Army for using drugs.

"After that I started getting into some harder stuff, cocaine, acid. I
got into that pretty heavy. The walls seemed to be closing in on me,"
Cutchall said.

In 1987, his drug use drove him to hold up a bank in western
Pennsylvania.

"I got caught immediately," he said.

His reward was a 5-year state prison sentence that landed him at the
State Correctional at Camp Hill during the 1989 riots there.

Even behind bars, the drug abuse continued, Cutchall
said.

After his release, he tried to reform on his own.

"I decided I was done with all that, or so I thought," Cutchall said.
"I stayed clean for a while. I met a woman. I thought she would be the
one to keep me straight, so we got married."

The interlude was fleeting.

He hurt his back at work. The doctor prescribed pain medication.
Before long, Cutshall said, he was hooked.

"When I couldn't get the meds I would self-medicate, with crack
cocaine, mostly," he said.

In January 2006, Carlisle police arrested him for forging a
prescription. Other counts of theft and access device fraud followed.

Again, he was looking at prison.

He enrolled in a rehabilitation program. And as he waited to learn his
legal fate, someone prompted him to ponder his faith.

That happened, Cutchall said, when he met Pastor Mike Rodriguez at the
Salvation Army in Carlisle.

"He asked me where I was at in my walk with God. I told him I'd never
really seen anything to convince me there was a God," Cutchall said.

Still, he said, the two prayed together and soon "things started going
right."

He got support from a friend and boss, Gerald Eby of Carlisle, "who
stuck with me even when he shouldn't have, when other people would
have walked away."

Cutchall started going with his wife, Rebecca, to the Carlisle
Brethren in Christ Church, where he found welcome, not judgment.

"They wanted to know how they could help me," he said.

Cutchall got a reprieve, too, when he was admitted to the first class
of Treatment Court in late 2006, dodging an 111/2- to 23-month prison
term.

"I had three daughters that I'd put through hell," he said. "The last
thing they needed was for me to go to jail."

Even before entering the program, he did 90 Narcotics Anonymous and
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 90 days.

"Even when I made a mistake they still made sure I knew they had faith
in me," he said of his 18 months in Treatment Court. "That's something
I never had a lot before.

Even with the random urine tests and mandatory bed checks "it was
personal. It wasn't like I was just a number," Cutchall said. "There's
not a lot I would change in the program."

Cutchall said that these days he'd rather take the pain than any
prescription pain medication. Detoxing from those was harder than
coming off crack, he said.

"I don't miss that life at all," Cutchall said.

He's on Social Security disability, but uses his construction and
remodeling skills to help others, including the people he met during
five church mission trips to hurricane-ravaged Mississippi. He works
with youth at his church and has testified about his experience during
services.

Joan Jones, a member of Samaritan Fellowship, said the change in
Cutshall is "fabulous."

She first met him when his wife came to the charitable group seeking
help. Dan was addicted then and the family's house was facing
foreclosure.

Her group took over the family's finances, and kept Cutchall away from
the money, until the storm passed, Jones said.

"He was evasive. He couldn't look you in the eye. He was withdrawn,"
Jones recalled. "Now, he always has a smile, he's always looking to
help others."

Eric Dale, a Carlisle police detective and veteran drug investigator,
met Cutchall when he was on the wrong side of the law, but saw his
potential to reform through drug court. Cutchall was different from
other addicts, Dale said.

"He had a strong moral background, he was family-oriented," the
detective said. "I think he just got tied up with the wrong crowd."

Dale said he is confident that Cutchall's reformation will stick.
"He's squared away. I know he is," Dale said. "He's a good guy."

Cutchall said one of the most cherished compliments he's received came
from probation officer Kerry Houser when he graduated from Treatment
Court. "You have become someone I can count on," Houser said.

Faith, he said, played a tremendous role in getting him through all
this.

"To have support is one of the biggest things in getting clean. And
hope, you have to have hope," Cutchall said. "That's what God did for
me. He gave me hope."