When Michael Lester was 18, he started using meth and later heroin.
“I just had a bad childhood," he recalls. "I wouldn’t listen to anything anyone told me, and I just got tied up with the wrong people, the wrong crowd."
He became a thief to support his habit and eventually got arrested. That’s when his luck changed. Instead of facing time in prison, a judge sentenced him to the Appalachian Community Corrections Alternative Program or CCAP. At one of four centers in the state, he found support instead of punishment.
“Now that I’ve got a sober mind and my brain has healed back, I’m not thinking about who’s the next person I can rip off next. I’m actually thinking about the next person I can really help out," Lester says.
The residential program takes 24-48 weeks. Participants get intensive treatment for addiction, study for a high school degree, learn welding, masonry or computer skills, and with a population of just over a hundred people at his center, Superintendent Shannon Fuller says they’re not tempted to use drugs.
“We’re very good at keeping drugs out of our facilities. We do a lot of drug testing. We’re going on seven months with no positive urine screens," he notes.
Just 4.5% of those who graduate end up getting into legal trouble again within their first year of freedom as compared with more than 32% who don’t complete the program.
