Jenkins, pictured here with former JCAP participants. Photo provided. Back row, from left, Rachelle Dickey, Shana Hunziker, Bethany Dixon, Kacynda Northrup, Morgan Wood, Taylor Brandon; Front row, from left, Mary Avery, Courtney Larkin, Karen Prater, Brandi Black, Courtney Jenkins and Shanda Spacy. Photo provided

By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

Editor’s note: This two-part feature looks at the Kosciusko County Jail Chemical Addiction Program and the people behind it.

WARSAW — “Who just decides to use heroin one day?”

That’s the question Courtney Jenkins was asked by her daughter — a sophomore in high school at the time.

It’s a logical question, Jenkins acknowledges — something many people may wonder when they read about yet another drug bust or overdose.

JCAP Coordinator Courtney Jenkins (R) received a white rose and a hug from each of the 10 graduates during a ceremony in 2019. InkFreeNews file photo.

Jenkins, coordinator for the Kosciusko County Jail Chemical Addiction Program, has firsthand experience with the subject — her son has struggled with addiction.

“I think the access is so easy. We have a huge drug problem among our teenagers. They pop pills like it’s nothing and those pills are so strong and that addiction can happen so quickly,” Jenkins said.  “And it’s so easy to get, it’s easier to get than alcohol. Parties are no longer these alcohol-fueled parties, they’re pill-fueled parties.”

Drug use often starts with experimentation due to peer pressure or curiosity. Others use drugs as an escape to deal with anxiety or trauma.

Injuries or procedures leading to prescribed pain medication is another way people become addicted, Jenkins said. 

“A lot of time it’s wisdom teeth, it’s ACL injuries, sports injuries,” she said.

“It usually doesn’t start with heroin. They start out using pills. Heroin is cheaper to get than pills,” Jenkins said. “For our son, he was sick because he hadn’t had any pills, and the guy he was buying from didn’t have any pills, but he had heroin so our son bought heroin that day — it was about a week before he started shooting heroin, and to me that’s shocking.”

“In five days, you can become addicted to opiates. Meth — one time and you’re addicted,” Jenkins said. “He started to struggle to keep a job because heroin just takes everything out of you. You nod off, you can’t function. Someone suggested a little bit of meth because it keeps you up and you can go to work and then it becomes a vicious cycle of you use meth for three days and you’re up, but then you need to sleep so you use heroin and then you’re back on the meth.”

Jenkins’ son’s addiction led her to begin studying the science of addiction, what it does to your brain and how it affects your ability to make good decisions. She eventually became more involved in JCAP.

“Every time my son would get arrested he would say, ‘I’m never coming back here, just bail me out. I’m never using again. I don’t want this life. I’m so tired of it, Mom, you don’t understand. I hate it. I hate using’ and I would believe him at first,” Jenkins said. “But then he would get out of jail and he’d go right back to using and so it got to the place like the boy who cried wolf, he would say the same things and I’d be like, “BS — you don’t mean any of those things. You’re just saying it to manipulate me. But the reality is, they do mean those things every single time they say it.”

Jenkins said addicts are relieved when they come to jail because the cycle stops there.

“Seeing (inmates) come in and being strung out that first week, being sick the second week and then finally getting to where they are embarrassed about the choices they made and they genuinely want help, I could see my son’s side of it,” Jenkins said. “It’s not that easy. If they’re not going to a different environment, if they’re not getting support and help, then they’re going to be back because addiction is hard and it’s not a matter of being clean for three months or six months. It takes years for your brain to heal so without that healing, that time and that support, it’s not very feasible that they’re going to stay clean.”

Jenkins said in her experience working with inmates through the JCAP program, the common denominator is that they’ve all experienced some sort of trauma in their childhood or adolescent years.

“There’s something there that they become very comfortable numbing up. It becomes a good place. They don’t feel different. They don’t feel like they have to hide anything,” Jenkins said. “They’re the same as everyone else around them and addiction becomes very comfortable for them. They don’t understand what they’re doing — they just suddenly fit in and don’t feel different.”

Jenkins said for those who have experienced trauma, substance use quickly turns into something that is completely out of their control.

“They don’t have to think about the fighting at home or the abuse that’s happened or the death of a parent or whatever that was for them,” Jenkins said. “For those kids who have experienced trauma, it’s comforting to them and it becomes their coping mechanism. They’re self-medicating so they keep chasing that.”

As to why anyone would risk experimenting with substances that are known to be highly addictive, Jenkins said kids are often arrogant.

“They think it can’t happen to them,” she explained. “I know my son has said ‘I didn’t think I’d become addicted. I’m not that weak’ — but it’s not a matter of weakness. It’s that your body is physically addicted to it.”

It seems fair to say that Jenkins has put her entire heart and soul into her work with the JCAP program. Her husband is “absolutely supportive,” often helping out at JCAP graduation events.

“I think all of my kids are really proud of what I do, even my son who has been in a lot of trouble and maybe wasn’t thrilled with me coming into the jail initially,” Jenkins said. “But he’s recommended people for the program so hearing him say nice things about it makes me feel really good and gives me hope for him as well.”

The JCAP participants seem to recognize Jenkins’ passion for the program. During JCAP graduation ceremonies, graduates often present Jenkins with roses, and several have made speeches thanking Jenkins for motivating and encouraging them.

“I genuinely care about their success,” Jenkins said of the inmates she mentors. “I want them to stay in contact with me. I try to build a personal relationship with each of them. I want to know all the good things that happen in their lives after they leave here.”