Caroline Progress February 10, 2011

C M Y KC M Y K

Providing Community News for Caroline County since 1919

Thursday, February 10, 2011 75 CENTS

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Schools to start foundation

Woman, son are arrested for OxyContin

see Recovery page A3

see Schools page A5

Group opens center to help drug addicts and alcoholics to recover

Boards meet to talk money

see Parade page A2

Taking the plunge

Supervisors, School Board discuss budget, capital plan

Town plans parade for vets, more

A Caroline County woman and her son have been arrested on charges of possessing the prescrip-tion drug OxyContin with the in-tent to distribute.

Julie M. Grooms, 39, and James J. Valdez, 18, both of Ruther Glen, initially were being held without bond at the Pa-munkey Re-gional Jail.

I n v e s t i -gators with the Caro-line County Sheriff’s Of-

more than $6,000 worth of OxyCon-tin, $2,500 in cash, mari-juana, and n u m e r o u s drug distribu-tion-related items during a search of a home at 2462 Jefferson Davis Highway.

“Anytime you catch anyone for distribution, that’s big to me,” said Sheriff Tony Lippa.

The two were arrested early Monday of last week as the result of a drug investigation by the nar-cotics division of the Sheriff’s Of-

“The abuse and illegal sale of prescription pills has increased tremendously in recent years,” Lippa said in a statement issued

to prescription pills being easier to obtain than most street drugs.”

Julie Grooms

James Valdez

Frank Brewer is heading up the Caroline County Recovery Community Center in Bowling Green.

By Tim CoxEditor

BOWLING GREEN – A Richmond-based nonprof-it foundation that provides services to help people shake off addictions to drugs and alcohol has opened for business in Caroline County.

The McShin Foundation opened the Caroline County Recovery Community Center in recent weeks. The center operates out of leased space in a building at 103 County Lane in the middle of Bowl-ing Green. The building also houses a barbershop and a local Masons chapter.

The foundation was encouraged to open a facility by Caroline Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spen-cer, who has been an advocate for the organization. Bowling Green Town Manager Steve Manster re-cently approved a request for the foundation to begin using the building.

The foundation was started by John Shinholser in 2004. It takes its name from Shinholser and his wife, Carol McDaid, who live in Hanover County. Shin-holser is a Marine veteran who owned and managed a painting contracting business for over 30 years. He

has been in recovery from addiction over 28 years and has been helping others for more than 25 years.

Shinholser and the foundation are advocates of a peer approach to helping others, employing recover-ing drug addicts and alcoholics to educate, mentor, and help others in order to enable them to recover from addictions. “If you can just get around recover-ing people…the therapeutic value of one addict help-ing another is…invaluable,” he explained.

The foundation operates a center, and several group homes in the Richmond area, and provides other services to people in recovery, such as discus-sion groups, 12-step meetings, access to computer and phones, and other support services.

Shinholser hopes the organization’s Caroline center will become part of the community, and that courts, mental health agencies, therapists, churches, families and others will refer people to the center. “It takes a while for it to get up to full speed,” he said, “We do a slow, methodical build-up.”

He praised Spencer’s interest in the foundation and his efforts to bring them to Caroline. “He saw

By Rebecca J. BarnabiReporter

BOWLING GREEN – The town of Bowling Green will host a pa-rade in the spring to honor veter-ans of the Korean and Vietnam wars.

In other business at the Town Council meeting on Thursday of last week, the council voted to authorize Town Manager Steve Manster to spend up to $1,700 for a three-dimensional version of the town seal to be placed in the Town Hall. The council is considering a proposal from Art & Sign Inc. of Stafford, which made signs for the town on U.S. 301 and Route 207.

“What we have to remember is this is a long-term thing,” said Councilor Glenn McDearmon. “This…will represent the town for many years to come. When some-one walks in they need to know where they are.”

Ron Curlings, a veteran and resident of Caroline, came to council with a request to hold the parade. Caroline Sheriff Tony Lippa agreed the route would be the same as the Christmas parade, according to Curlings - proceeding south on Main Street to the court-house lawn for a ceremony.

Curlings also organized a pro-gram in the fall to recognize the Korean and Vietnam veterans; it was held at the Community Ser-vices Center.

“There were three things they didn’t get when they came home (from war),” said Curlings. “They

Photo by Dawn Pitts

Forty people bravely took the annual Polar Bear Plunge into Lake Caroline. Story, more photos on B3.

By Rebecca J. BarnabiReporter

An educational foundation is being created to ben-

and after high school.Spearheaded by Superintendent of Schools Greg

Killough, the foundation likely will be called the Car-oline County Educational Foundation. It will raise funds to – among other things - alleviate some of the

budget cuts in recent years.The foundation would set up an account to allow

people to contribute money for particular projects to

“I would hope that most of the money would go

to help with scholarships, and I don’t just mean four-year institutions,” said Killough. “I want to see the majority of the money go to getting students career- and college-ready.”

According to Killough, the School Board ultimately would approve any and all projects.

People could make donations to support career and technology education programs, scholarships to Germanna Community College or four-year colleges, for supplies and materials for teachers to use in the classroom, or for special projects, such as beautifying school facilities.

“We’re probably one of the few divisions that doesn’t have a foundation,” said Killough who

By Tim CoxEditor

MILFORD – Members of the Board of Supervisors and the School Board met Tuesday to discuss the school system’s spending request for

Floyd Thomas, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, indicated that the school system’s proposed budget would not be fully funded in the budget being prepared by County Administrator Percy Ashcraft, who will deliver his proposal to the supervisors today.

“I know it’s not” the $2.6 million requested by the School Board, Thomas told the two panels, which met around a conference room table in the Community Services Center.

His revelation prompted School Board member Valerie Fells to ask, “Well, what is it?”

Thomas did not say. “I can say without a doubt, I don’t think we’ve ever fully funded the School Board budget request,” he said.

The school system budget, as proposed by Superintendent Greg Killough and approved by the School Board, asks for $2.6 million in

county’s real estate tax rate 10 cents.The budget includes $1.3 million for pay increases for teachers, sup-

port personnel, administrators, and for supplements, and $543,173 is to fund contributions to state pensions for teachers. It also calls for seven new positions at a cost of $371,690.

There was a discussion of what the priorities should be for pay in-creases for school employees, although no consensus was reached. The proposed pay increases range from 4 percent to 8 percent for school

see Budget page A4

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C M Y K

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8026 Prosperity Way

I N M E M O R Y O F

Jan. 30,1938–Feb. 7, 2010Pee Wee Wright

With Love,Wife, Mae

Daughters, Sue Ann & CathyGranddaughters, Shelby, Kaly, & Marion

If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane, I’d walk right up to heaven and bring you home again.

rememberingOBITUARIES AND IN MEMORIAM

February 10, 2011 The Caroline Progress A3

Charlotte Reynolds DurrettCharlotte Reynolds Durrett, 87, of Bowling Green, who

had been a leader at Salem Baptist Church in Sparta, died Jan. 18.

Ms. Durrett was educated at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. She worked for the Defense General Supply Center in Richmond, where she was rec-ognized with the Distinguished Federal Civilian Service Award.

After retiring in 1971, she spent time doing what she loved most, serving her church and being with family.

As a life-long member of Salem Baptist Church in Spar-

woman to serve as moderator of the Hermon Baptist As-sociation. She was the director of the church’s WMU from 1969-1998 and also served as association director for many years.

Ms. Durrett was preceded in death by her husband of 56 years, Robert Ashby Durrett; a brother, Carl Lewis Reyn-olds; and parents, Nancy and Clem Reynolds of Locust Hill Farm.

Survivors include her devoted sister, Bessie Blanton Al-len of Bowling Green, and numerous nieces, great-nieces, nephews and great-nephews.

A memorial service was held Jan. 22 at Salem Baptist Church, and interment was at the church cemetery.

Dixie Belle MouserDixie Belle Mouser, 72, of Bowling Green died Thurs-

day at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond after a long, coura-geous battle.

She was a retired civil servant at Ft. Belvoir and in recent years worked as a teacher’s aide at Bowling Green Primary School.

Mrs. Mouser was active in the community as secretary of the Caroline County Republican Party and a member of Salem Baptist Church in Sparta; she also was past president of the Sparta Ruritan Club.

Survivors include her husband of 52 years, Troy Mouser; a son, Troy L. Mouser and his wife, Gail, of Texas; a daugh-ter, Penny Thomas and her husband, Chris, of Norfolk; three sisters, Grace Oakley, Libby Hazelwood and Gwen-dolyn Martin, all of South Boston; and two grandchildren, Camden and Nicholas. She was preceded in death by her sister, Ann Seat.

A memorial service was held Sunday at Salem Baptist Church.

On online register book is available at www.storkefuner-alhome.com.

Sharon K. JimenezSharon K. Jimenez, 20, of Bowling Green died Jan. 30.Born in San Diego, Ms. Jimenez attended Wilson Col-

lege to study and pursue her love of horses. She was an ac-tive member of 4-H in Caroline.

Survivors include her son, Liam Wright; her parents, Carlos and Beth Jimenez, and her brother, Tony Jimenez.

A private funeral service was planned.Memorial contributions may be made to Caroline 4-H,

c/o Virginia Cooperative Extension, P.O. Box 339, Bowling Green, Va., 22427

An online register book is available at www.storkefuner-alhome.com.

Letters to the Editor:[email protected]

FREDERICKSBURG - The Rappahannock Area Com-munity Services Board (RACSB) is seeking entries for the seventh annual Art of Recovery exhibit. The art show fea-tures original artwork by adults with mental illness.

The show is organized by members of Kenmore Club, RACSB’s psychosocial clubhouse for adults with severe and persistent mental illness.

The exhibit will open May 6 at The PONSHOP on Caroline Street in Fredericksburg and corresponds with First Fridays. The exhibit will run through May 29 and coincides with National Mental Health Month. RACSB is accepting original drawings, paintings, sculp-ture, textiles, prints, mixed media, photographs and ceram-ics. Submissions are due April 15. Entries must include an attached label with the name of the artist, year of completion (if known), locale of the artist, and sale price (if the artwork is available for sale). Participating in the art show does not require that the artwork be for sale. The PONSHOP will apply a reasonable commission on all artwork sold.

A limited number of frames will be available for use. Artists are encouraged to frame pieces selected for display.

Selections for the exhibit will be made by April 29. To submit artwork or to learn more, contact Helen Connelly at (540) 373-7737, e-mail [email protected] or mail submissions to Connelly at RACSB, 600 Jackson St., Fredericksburg, Va., 22401.

Art show will exhibit works by mentally ill

the value in what we were doing,” said Shinhol-ser, “and wanted Caroline County to take advantage of this.”

“We’re just ecstatic over Tony Spencer’s involve-ment,” he added.

The center is staffed by Frank Brewer, 43, whom Shinholser called a “recov-ery coach.” Brewer began serving as a McShin Foun-dation volunteer about three years ago and has been on the staff about two years. In addition to his du-ties in Bowling Green, he lives in and supervises a group home for the organi-zation in Henrico County.

Brewer grew up in Highland Springs. He be-gan drinking alcohol at age 8, smoking marijuana at age 10, and using cocaine at 11, he said. He has been jailed numerous times for crimes related drug and al-cohol use.

He was introduced to the McShin Foundation and its services while he was on probation in 2006. He began attending a day program but continued to use drugs, he said.

Finally, in August 2007, Brewer prayed for help. He got down on his knees and said, ‘God, I can’t do this no more. I need some help,’ he recalled.

His prayer was an-swered, he said, when two

the home the next morning.

someone else, but Brewer, who was wanted on a pro-bation violation, turned himself over to them.

“That was God talking to me,” Brewer recalled. The message, he said, was, “This is your way out if you want it.”

It was a pivotal point in his life. Brewer has been “clean” – free of drugs and alcohol – since then, Aug. 6, 2007. Brewer was referred to a drug court program and completed it successfully.

At the center, his role is to “introduce people to re-covery.” His duties include leading 12-step meetings, reaching out in the com-munity to people who need help, and raising public awareness of the center. He also is learning what resources are available in the community so he can refer clients as needed. He hopes to add some comput-ers in the future so clients can use them in job-hunt-ing efforts.

“We’re trying to help the community be a safe and healthy community,” said Brewer.

Recovery from page A1

Twelve-step meetings for alcohol or drug addiction are offered most days at several different locations in Caroline County.

For alcohol addiction, 12-step meeting are held as follows:Monday – 7 p.m., Caroline County Recovery Com-munity Center (CCRCC), Bowling GreenTuesday – 7 p.m., Wright’s Chapel United Methodist Church, LadysmithWednesday – 7:30 p.m., Bowling Green United Meth-odist ChurchSaturday – 7 p.m., CCRCC, Bowling GreenSunday – 7 p.m., St. Asaph’s Episcopal Church, Bowl-ing Green

For drug addiction, 12-step meetings are held as follows:Monday – noon, CCRCC, Bowling GreenTuesday – noon, CCRCC, Bowling GreenWednesday - noon, CCRC, Bowling GreenThursday – noon, CCRC, Bowing Green, and 7 p.m., Wright’s Chapel United Methodist Church, Lady-smith.Friday – noon, CCRC, Bowling Green

12-step meetings offered

“We want to help lives and rebuild families,” he added.

Caroline County Sheriff Tony Lippa was cool to the idea.

“I am not sure if there is a need or that it would be

e-mail to The Progress, be-cause the McShin Founda-tion also provides services at the Pamunkey Regional Jail.

“I have asked for docu-mentation from Mr. Mc-Shin that would support the claims of why we need this program in Caroline County and to date I have not seen any documenta-tion where it would be ben-

Apprised of Lippa’s re-marks, Shinholser said that “as a general rule,” 10 per-cent of a community’s pop-

services for drug or alco-hol addiction. “Of course

Caroline County could use this Recovery Community Center,” he said via e-mail. “Every community in Vir-ginia wants one of these. In 28-plus years, this is the

major stakeholder balked.”Helping people recover

from addictions to drugs and alcohol “increases public safety,” said Shin-holser, and reduces repeat offenders.

“The county spends a lot of money keeping peo-ple in the Pamunkey Jail,” he noted.

When informed of Lip-pa’s comments, Spencer

The Caroline Progress for an opportu-nity to respond in the form of an op-ed article for the newspaper. After writing it, however, he elected to purchase a full-page adver-tisement in the newspaper because of its length. (See page A7 for the full text of

Spencer’s remarks.)In the paid advertise-

ment, Spencer said Caro-line is in a “crisis.”

While Caroline’s popu-lation grew 17 percent from 2003-2007, annual incidents of serious crimes tracked by the Virginia State Police “grew by an astonishing 112 percent,” said Spencer.

The State Police also

showing the incident rate of serious crimes per 100,000 of population; Caroline’s rate grew from 2,195 in 2003 to 4,314 in 2007, “the fastest such growth in crime in Virginia,” accord-ing to Spencer. “Our crime rate is now close to the top among the state’s 106 rural jurisdictions.”

“About 85 percent of the people committing crimes in our county have an alcohol or drug prob-lem,” wrote Spencer. “If we could get these people to stay in recovery, the crime rate would plummet. The centerpiece of our plan, therefore, is to get alcoholics and addicts into long-term recovery.”

The center already has begun holding more week-ly 12-step meetings in Car-oline for people who need help overcoming drug or alcohol addiction. With the opening of the recov-ery center, meetings now

week for alcohol addiction

narcotics addiction with plans to add more.

The Caroline County Recovery Community Center is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and expects to ex-pand hours in the future.

Brewer may be con-tacted at (804) 632-6015 or [email protected].

C M Y K

February 10, 2011 The Caroline Progress A7

A7

We are faced in Caroline County with an increasing multitude of criminal justice problems.

The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office has developed a plan for addressing these problems, but it will involve a substantial revamping of how we do business.

About 85% of the people committing crimes in our County have an alcohol or drug problem. If we could get these people to stay in recovery, the crime rate would plummet. The centerpiece of our plan, therefore, is to get alcoholics and addicts into long-term recovery.

The Problems We Are Facing

1. Fast population growth, astonishingly fast growth in crime.

In the past ten years, Caroline County has been one of the fastest-growing localities in America. Between 2003 and 2007, Caroline’s population grew by 17%. The United States Census Bureau announced in 2006 that Caroline County was the tenth fastest-growing county in the United States between 2004 and 2005.

Yet, the rate of crime in Caroline County has grown even faster than its population.

Each year, the Virginia State Police publish crime data on the 22 most serious categories of offenses, designated as Group “A” offenses.According to the State Police data from 2003 to 2007, while Caroline’s population was growing by 17%, the annual incidents of Group “A” offenses grew by an astonishing 112%.

The State Police also publish annual figures showing the incident rate of Group “A” offenses per 100,000 of population. That incident rate has grown in Caroline County from 2,195 in 2003 to 4,314 in 2007, the fastest such growth in crime in Virginia. Our crime rate is now close to the top among the State’s 106 rural jurisdictions.

2. Our criminal justice resources are falling behind.

While the population and crime rate in Caroline have been rising, the resources available for public safety have not been keeping up.

Prosecution. In every jurisdiction in Virginia, the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney prosecutes crime. There are 120 Commonwealth’s Attorney’s offices in Virginia, and the State Compensation Board ranks them every year according to their staffing needs.For fiscal year 2008, Caroline was ranked as the State’s locality most in need of additional prosecutors, with a staffing need factor of 86.12, almost twice the need of the second-ranked jurisdiction, Amelia County, with a factor of 49.95.

In fiscal year 2009, the need for additional prosecutors grew in jurisdictions all across Virginia, and Caroline’s Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office was no exception. With a staffing need factor of 98.04, Caroline is still ranked as having the most understaffed Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office in the State.

Incarceration. Due to the current budget crisis, our County has had to make substantial cuts in the number of teachers and other public servants. At the same time, our numbers of inmates in jail and our incarceration costs are skyrocketing.

Each year, we are setting records for the amount of time being imposed in sentencing.In fiscal year 2007, Caroline County was billed by the local jails for 20,791 inmate days. In fiscal year 2010, we were billed for 34,310 inmate days.

For the first time ever, in 2007 Caroline budgeted in excess of $1 million for incarceration costs, and we still went over budget by $100,000. In 2009, our incarceration costs were $1,530,575, more than $200,000 over budget.

Court-ordered Substance Abuse Services. In a large percentage of our criminal cases, the courts are ordering defendants to undergo assessments and treatment for substance abuse. Until recently, the only substance abuse services in Caroline available to defendants by court order were offered by the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board (“RACSB”), which employs a psychological treatment model. The number of court-ordered substance abuse patients seen by RACSB has skyrocketed, yet the great majority of them return to using within a year.

After almost thirty years of working in the criminal justice system, I am convinced that the peer-support “recovery” model more effectively assists alcoholics and drug abusers in coming to terms with their addictions, and at a much lower cost.

For many years, I have been involved in trying to get alcoholics and addicts to get help, and I have come to see that psychological

treatment is a short-term “band-aid” that does not work for people suffering from a chronic, life-long illness. The best chance of success for an addict or alcoholic is to become a part of the recovery community with the assistance of peer-based recovery support services.

The peer-based recovery support groups, Alcoholics Anonymous (“A.A.”) and Narcotics Anonymous (“N.A.”), recommend that new members attend 90 meetings in 90 days. In all of Caroline County, there have been only three

A.A. meetings a week. There has been only one N.A. meeting a week.

Pre-trial Supervision and Probation. As a general rule, our local probation office provides pre-trial supervision, as well as probation services for people convicted of misdemeanors, and the State’s Division of Probation and Parole supervises those convicted of felonies. While their budgets have been cut, both our district’s Probation and Parole office and our local probation office have been supervising record-high numbers of people each of the past two years.

Because of the budget crunch, probation officers have less contact with their clients and are less able to offer them support and to monitor them for substance abuse, mental health, employment, and payment of restitution.

3. Our political geography, demographics, and means of transportation present special problems.

At 539 square miles, Caroline is one of Virginia’s largest counties in area, yet it has a population well under 30,000 and a population density of about 50 people per square mile.There are some towns, several subdivisions, and many remote small communities served locally perhaps by a general store, a firehouse, a rescue squad, and one or two churches.

For historical reasons, our County has ended up in a planning district and sharing a community services board with Fredericksburg, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford, while being in a Probation and Parole district and sharing our jail and local probation office with Hanover.

The other four localities in our planning district share not only a jail and the same State and local probation offices, but a Drug Court.Despite our best efforts to join that court, the presiding judge is adamant that Caroline not be allowed to participate: The Drug Court apparatus involves a somewhat complicated arrangement of different agencies, and he does not want to bring in another jail and additional State and local probation offices.

I have approached the authorities in Hanover about starting a Drug Court program, and they are not interested.

Caroline is too small to have a Drug Court of its own.

Virginia’s Drug Court programs must comply with numerous requirements imposed by the Supreme Court of Virginia, and they have become much more bureaucratic and costly. Drug Courts currently cost the State $8,700 a year per participant.

The courts have been required by law to suspend the driving privileges of many of the people in our County who need to get to their probation office and their recovery meetings and who are supposed to be looking for employment. Public transportation in Caroline consists of very limited bus service from our planning district which does not reach most of the County.

To understand the magnitude of the problems we are facing, imagine a recovering addict who is on parole and living without a driver’s license in the Central Point community of eastern Caroline County:

He would have spent time in prison.He would never have had the opportunity to participate in a Drug Court program.

He would be 15 miles from the nearest public transportation, a bus line to localities north of Caroline. Somehow, he would have to travel 40 miles to Ashland to see his probation officer, 20 miles to see his substance abuse counselor, and almost 50 miles to attend any court-ordered programs like anger management or batterer’s intervention. He would be about 30 miles away from

the County’s one N.A. meeting a week and would have to travel hundreds of miles a week to other localities if he wanted to attend 90 meetings in 90 days.All of this without a driver’s license while he’s supposed to be finding a job.

We would all be shocked to see him succeed.

How We Plan To Address Our Problems

Under our plan, we will find defendants who are good candidates for recovery and reintegration into their communities, and we will offer them an alternative to conviction or jail. By using a carrot-and-stick approach with those who accept the offer, we expect to see about 50% of them succeed. To sustain and expand our plan will require a small fraction of the money we will be saving in the cost of incarceration, pre-trial and probation supervision, and court-ordered treatment.The Assessment and The Offer.

Once a defendant is arrested, the prosecutor and defense attorney will begin compiling information about him in anticipation of an assessment conference one to two weeks after the arrest. At the assessment conference, the prosecutor and defense attorney will consider whether the defendant is a good candidate for an alternative resolution of his charges.

Often, in prosecuting a defendant charged with domestic assault, we are approached by the victim, who tells us that the defendant is a good husband and father when he’s sober and that she doesn’t want us to send him to jail but just to get him to stop drinking. Or we are told by a senior citizen whose shed was burglarized by a neighbor that she’s known the defendant since he was a baby and that he was a Boy Scout and a good kid before he got hooked on drugs. To these defendants, we would consider offering an alternative resolution.

Only Caroline County residents will be eligible to participate in the program. Defendants charged with sex offenses or violent felonies would not be eligible.

If a defendant is a good candidate, he will be allowed to volunteer for an opportunity to earn the alternative resolution. To accept, he would sign a contract detailing exactly what would be expected of him. Most provisions would be the same in all such contracts, but certain provisions in each contract would be tailored to address the problems of the individual defendant.

After the defendant enters into the contract, his criminal case would be continued for at least one year, and he would remain on bond. Under his contract, the defendant would admit his guilt and waive his speedy trial rights, and he would agree to the revocation of his bond for specified periods of time for certain violations of the contract’s terms.

In most instances, the defendant will be given the opportunity to stay out of jail and earn a dismissal or reduction of all charges by being in recovery for a year or more, getting a job, performing community service, and paying any restitution he owes.

Because participation in the recovery community is central to our plan, we are calling it a Recovery Community Program.

The McShin Foundation. We are very fortunate to be teamed up on this project with the McShin Foundation, a national leader in delivering recovery support services. While the average success rate for substance abuse services nationally is 7%, McShin has a success rate approaching 50%.

McShin has been recognized by Republicans and Democrats, in Washington and Richmond. Both Congressmen Eric Cantor (R-Va) and Bobby Scott (D-Va) support the McShin Foundation. Personally, I have been contacted by Bill Howell, Speaker of the House of Delegates, and Chris Peace, a Delegate representing Caroline County, encouraging me to bring McShin to our County.

In addition to providing recovery support in the prisons, McShin has a Recovery Resource Center in Henrico County. The Center is open seven days a week and hosts A.A. and N.A. meetings every day and every night. At the Center, McShin offers peer relapse prevention groups, recovery coaches, and job placement services. The Center can provide peer and faith-based contacts, linkage to other agencies and services, and housing referrals.

At its Recovery Resource Center in Henrico, McShin answers over 18,000 calls and hosts over 2,000 peer-based meetings a year. On average, over 700 consumers weekly pass through the Center. McShin also has 34 recovery beds in five recovery houses, with accessto over 300 more beds in the Richmond area.

McShin provides the most effective recovery support services in America, and it does so

at a lower cost than any other organization involved in the rehabilitation of addicts and alcoholics.

Caroline County Recovery Community Center. McShin’s Recovery Resource Center in Henrico is too far away to serve Caroline’s residents. For this reason, the McShin Foundation last month opened the Caroline County Recovery Community Center (CCRCC) in Bowling Green.

Located in a building across from the County’s courthouse, the CCRCC offers A.A. and N.A. meetings every day and every night, as well as peer relapse prevention groups, recovery coaches, job placement services, linkage to other agencies and services, and housing referrals. These recovery support services are available not only to people in the Recovery Community Program, but to other County residents in recovery.

Each participant in the Recovery Community Program will be assigned a personal Certified Recovery Coach. Participants in the program will have to attend meetings every day for the first 90 days and thereafter as directed by their personal Certified Recovery Coach. No methadone or other drugs will be distributed.

For Recovery Community participants, the CCRCC conducts random alcohol and drug testing by urine and saliva screens and monitors whether the program’s participants are employed or seeking employment, whether they are paying restitution or performing community service, and whether those with mental health disorders are taking their medications.

If a Recovery Community participant misses a meeting, tests positive for alcohol or drugs, or refuses to be tested, he or she will be in violation of the contract and will be taken to and kept at a recovery house until the next day court is in session, when his or her bond will be revoked for some period of time.

The Carrot and The Stick. We know that relapse is a part of recovery. The typical addict who achieves long-term recovery will relapse four or five times in his first two years.

The first four or five times a participant violates, he will not be removed from the program. Instead, his bond will be revoked temporarily, and he will go to jail, for one week upon the first violation and for longer periods upon subsequent violations.

Any participant who flunks out completely will return to the normal criminal justice system, and we will be looking to send him to prison. Jail and prison are the sticks.

The carrot for successful completion of the Recovery Community Program is the dismissal or reduction of the criminal charges, along with the opportunity for a better life, in recovery, with employment and the respect of one’s community.

Public Safety and Expected Outcomes

People addicted to alcohol or drugs are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, our husbands and wives, our fathers and mothers, our friends and neighbors. They come to Bowling Green to shop at the Food Lion, Rite-Aid and Dollar General, to go to the Post Office, to see their doctor or lawyer, to buy county decals, to attend church, and to go to court. Now they can also attend A.A. and N.A. meetings in Bowling Green.

The Caroline County Recovery Community Center is located across the street from the Virginia State Police office and within 100 yards of the Sheriff’s Office and the Bowling Green Police Department.

In over forty years of A.A. and N.A. meetings in Caroline County, there has never been a public disturbance. Recovery meetings do not present a threat to public safety; they enhance public safety.

We expect that about 50% of the participants will successfully complete their contractual obligations and become law-abiding and productive members of our communities.We expect to see a concomitant drop in the numbers of defendants who are incarcerated, placed on probation, and ordered into substance abuse treatment.

We also expect in Caroline County to see a substantial drop in crime and an increase in the quality of life.

Caroline’s Recovery Community Program is generating interest from Republicans and Democrats alike. I will be meeting in three weeks with the Governor’s Office to discuss our program, which may become a model for similar programs throughout the State. Thepeople of Caroline should be proud of their County’s role as a leader in devising solutions that are both effective and cost-effective in addressing our public safety problems.

A program to reduce both crime and costs in Caroline County

Paid for by the Caroline County Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney

People addicted to alcohol or drugs are our sons and daughters, our

brothers and sisters, our husbands and wives, our fathers and mothers,

our friends and neighbors.

By Anthony G. “Tony” Spencer, Commonwealth’s Attorney of Caroline County

Documents

Caroline Progress February 10, 2011