President Obama gives hope to Integrity House residents
They were nervous, but President Obama had a calming presence, telling them he was like family.
It helped that they already were at home at Integrity House, a substance abuse rehabilitation center in Newark - a place each believes has saved their lives.
"He said, 'Don't get nervous,' '' says Darryl Rose. " 'Treat me like one of the fellas.' He said, 'I'm family.' ''
Call it a presidential icebreaker, words of assurance before Obama began a conversation Monday afternoon with three Integrity House clients and a staff member. They discussed prisoner re-entry and criminal justice reforms that could lead to drug treatment instead of incarceration for recovering addicts.
He was for real, Sharon Boatwright says, because he didn't shake her hand. The president hugged her instead. "I didn't want to let go,'' she says.
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Stephanie Luna could clearly see Obama was sincere when he asked them to share their thoughts on the barriers to re-entry, especially what they found difficult.
It really hit home, though, when Obama asked about their lives, about how they were doing, while praising them for navigating their way through recovering.
"This is a good man who means well,'' Luna says. "You just get the instinct that he's someone who truly cares. We need more people like him."
All three of the residents are in different phases of treatment. The Integrity approach is the type of program that Obama is expected to use when he calls on Congress to pass a bill that reduces mandatory sentencing.
Rose, 56, has been at Integrity House for just a month. He told the president that a longtime heroin addiction had landed him in jail, but then a judge told him he needed to deal with the problem - which brought him to Integrity House. Though he is at the beginning of his rehabilitation effort, Rose says the program has helped him a great deal already.
Luna, 37, who has been drug free for a year, is a classic example of what can happen with sentencing reform.
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She says she was facing a 12-year sentence for trafficking methamphetamine. But in New Jersey, she is one of five people who qualified for a pilot pre-trial program that could lead to probation or dismissal of the charge.
She's in the halfway house phase of the Integrity program, working as a waitress at a pizzeria and remaining in treatment. She also is attempting to get her nursing license reinstated.
"I'm lucky. When I was addicted, I never thought I could get clean. I thought I was doomed,'' Luna says. "This is why I feel the need to get better and stay sober, and do what I have to do.''
Boatwright, 48, is at the end of the program and almost on her own. She's lives in one of Integrity's homes for single women. During the day, she works two jobs - one as a cashier at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, and the other as a packager for a food distribution company in West Caldwell.
She's come a long way from a 30-year cocaine addiction. And four prison terms for selling drugs. She also lost her child, but got her back.
"I never thought I would get to this point in my life, where somebody can love me so I can love myself,'' she says. "An addict like me never thought I would meet the president, (not) from where I came from.''
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Robin Shorter, who greeted Obama with Integrity president Robert Budsock, is probably one of their biggest cheerleaders. She's an Integrity employee and knows how hard these three clients have been working on their recovery, because she once wore their shoes.
Shorter, 55, went through the program more than a decade ago, battling back from heroin addiction and eventually earned a master's degree in counseling. Now, she is the director of Integrity's women's outpatient program, as well as its halfway house.
She says Obama's visit signals that there is hope for recovering addicts, that they are not forgotten - an attitude all too often embraced by society.
This visit was big for Integrity and the people it helps. Even though the president saluted the program's work, the residents and staff, in turn, thanked the president - as well as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Sen. Cory Booker, also in attendance - for caring about them enough to have programs that give addicts a second chance.
"We've been to hell and we were fortunate enough to get away,'' Shorter says. "We are all survivors of a near-fatal catastrophe. That's the disease of addiction and it almost killed us."
But it didn't. And that's what they got to tell the president of the United States.
Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL