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."