♪ >> In the community, probably we can help these people from going back to reduce recidivism.

It better.

The community.

>> We'll look at a program turning today's prisoners into tomorrow's productive citizens.

>> We want to believe that if you want the chance to change that, you have that opportunity to do so through Hardin Country.

Courts.

>> One of the first drug court programs in the Commonwealth celebrates a major milestone.

This program doesn't take people kicking and screaming into it.

We've got to have some acknowledgement that there is an issue.

>> A program helping parents struggling with addiction issues get back their lives and their children.

>> We need places like this for us to recover.

If we don't have a man, I mean, all we're going to see is more.

I would I.

Pathways journey.

House has grown bigger to include more women and mothers on their road to recovery.

>> You know, and and here in Kentuckyian we've seen really significant success rates.

>> We'll take a look at new technology.

The FDA says is helping some people battle their addictions.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to a special Kentucky edition.

I'm Kristine that and filling in for Renee Shaw.

Thank you so much for joining us.

>> For many, the new year brings a new beginning.

A chance to start over in 2024.

We shared with you several stories of people who were getting that chance and a new and better life that included some soon-to-be released prisoners who with the help of the Goodwill Aspire program, we're finding jobs and getting mentorship and guidance before they're released.

8 and after they're released back into the community, those prisoners are help to buy the aspire team.

A group that knows what it's like to be behind bars.

>> conviction with the president in 1990, fad in total cost of those 18 years in and out.

They always have programs for you to take to get a good time.

A few seconds, maybe get out of the earlier.

I have been to parole board, but he's not the birdie impacts you and give you the resources when you get out.

So to stop program not only goes pretty release, but it goes post-release when they get out with that with for this journey.

>> Purpose of this fire program is ultimately for people that are incarcerated upon release.

They are successful in Inter reintegrating him back into the community, but also just employment having the sustainability in being independent.

And having good employment.

So that's the ultimate goal.

And that they don't obviously rescinded fights.

We have 6 career development facilitators having the justice involvement and backgrounds enables the career development facilitators to be reliable.

Just almost instantly.

>> By me being in a justice system for so long in being right in the very presence that I'm now it really is gave me some life experience that they can see.

Hey, disguise.

And I just come from something that we really are going to school getting a degree someday live.

So my experience, I think just the past week.

>> The reentry coordinators at the state, Kentucky Department of Corrections.

They determine who's eligible on the requirements that we have are that they have to be 20 to 90 days from release.

They can have a sex charge.

And they've got to be returning to the Louisville area.

Or they don't have a home placement.

And one of the reasons about the reasons that we put that in there about no home placements is because the majority of the reentry centers are in Louisville.

We have 5 in moments right now.

For the aspiring integration phase.

But we had 67 complete the Spire Workshop, which is inside the prisons.

15 hours is provided inside the prison.

And we work with the client its a 3, 5 our day.

We really go over like raintree barriers.

We have 7 partner prisons into re-entry centers.

We have some other partners.

We have the legal aid society.

So every client that's release will get a legal assessment completed.

We also had 3 mental health partners that will help them transition in receive mental health services.

So and one of them is specific to substance abuse.

The other one is for high-risk offenders that have a high risk averse.

Innovating.

And trauma.

It informed care.

And so we have 3 mental health partners that are going to be helping.

Them as they transition.

This is a community problem is we can help these people from going back and recidivism.

It better as a community.

I just think it's well overdue.

>> Is long It gives hope.

>> The program started in 2023 and is run by a federal grant from the Department of Labor.

>> It will last until 2026.

Followed by a follow up to see how the >> program worked.

What started as a grassroots effort a way to help those experiencing substance use and mental health disorders who found themselves on the wrong side of the law in 2024, the Hardin County Drug Court celebrated its 25th anniversary with an event to honor the milestone and the program's newest graduates.

>> We want to believe that if you want the chance to change that, you have that opportunity to do so through Hardin County treatment courts.

I've been to a couple treatment facilities.

I've been in jail on a handful of times.

>> I made my mind up this last time I was in jail that I wanted to do something different.

>> So I decided to record the court is an interception before the criminal justice case.

A criminal charge and a responsibility for treatment.

If you are not successful in a treatment court program, you will be going to jail or prison.

I took the court.

Mainly ready just to get out of jail as I might get out of for free, Dzhokhar.

But I have my mind made up that I wanted.

>> To do something different that I did not want to use anymore that I wanted to be a father that I wanted to be reliable and that I wanted to be there for the people that mean the most to me.

They brought more elements with an irregular treatment facility.

We have 2 district court judges that work.

We have 2 circuit court judges that work with drug court.

Then we have mental health court.

>> And we have veterans treatment court.

If you are successful, you get life back and you get charges expunged.

So we don't talk to us about clean drug tests, but clean criminal history and a clean slate to really get started in the future.

A scene, the legal mean all the legal people that's involved.

>> Them cleaning off your record.

People that have also graduated the program that are also teaching in the program.

So they have that experience.

It's just it's just a beautiful thing.

>> The Hardin County Drug Court has served nearly 2000 people in the 25 years.

It's been around.

Well, there are new options for families affected by drug and alcohol abuse.

Parents at risk of losing custody can opt into a program that helps get their lives back on track.

It's called Family Recovery Court and judges and advocates say it bring stability to those who have suffered addiction.

>> Judged on in Blair became family court judge in Hardin County 2 years ago.

Near the top of her to do list who was one of the things that was really important.

Offering family recovery, court and dependency abuse and neglect cases.

>> It's clear now work together at the county attorney's office and spent lots of time talking about, you know, kind of the dream of having something like this.

>> That dream is becoming reality with new FRC offices in Elizabeth Town and Somerset offering a three-phase program that connects parents struggling with substance abuse to resources for recovery.

And if the courts and government can be a part of providing those supports, that's what we need to be doing old and says those cases account for 30 to 40% of petitions they see in family court.

What we find if you look at the rest of them, if you peel back the onion, it's there.

And the other cases to this program doesn't take people kicking and screaming into it.

We've got to have some acknowledgement that there is an issue.

I can't 4 shooting, get help.

I can order it.

But ultimately you're going to be the one that can comply with this.

I started using drugs out of our young guy and addiction that would follow Kelly Sam's into motherhood until she became sober through family recovery court.

As soon as I walked through the doors, I KET I was in the right place.

Sam's is a program graduate in Clay County where she now works as a peer mentor has changed so many girls walking here, you know, upset because, you know, they lost her child.

>> We're here to help me.

It's just a helping hand.

Judge Clint Harris says the program bundles together, intensive addiction treatment, mental health assessments and parenting classes.

>> Instead of giving somebody a piece of paper and say, here's what you need to be.

We say here's what you need to know him.

>> He says he's seen much success with FRC in Clay County and it's rewarding to watch the transformation.

>> It's kind of like the last week.

That's certainly the black comes on that.

What they've been doing is probably not the based and I suddenly realized they can do different things.

They can do better.

>> Say slow but steady progress.

>> Volunteers of America amid states oversees the program, which includes weekly court sessions, drug screens and meetings.

The ultimate goal is long-term sobriety.

>> And family reunification and some cases the children are never removed from the home.

If conditions are deemed safe anytime a child from a from their home, that's the that child we can never really make up for that loss.

>> By using this type of program, it gives us the option in the ability to leave kids in the home with lots of services or if we still have to remove the children and gives us the ability lot of times to return, the children are enough and the family quicker.

>> Family recovery courts goal is to restore the home to a healthy functioning family unit.

We they want this to be a long time.

We don't want to just put a Band-Aid on it.

And then, you know, we see him back in family court again in 6 months.

>> The chances of relapse and ending back up in the court system go down dramatically for individuals that successfully complete recovery court.

It's just a nice and family for Kelly.

It's meant lasting sobriety and a chance to help others become the best version of themselves.

This program helped me so much and I know how good this program has this job.

It's not just a job to me.

Highly of it.

>> I want to buy now I get the help and I get to use all the tools at I went through a 9 e help them.

And in Hardin and Pulaski counties where the program is brand new.

>> They hope to see the same success.

The success stories and fan the climb too a year or 2 years later, come back to us and they're working and they've got their kids and I've got a half.

That's really kind of why you do it.

>> In Boyd County, there's hope for mothers with substance use Disorders, pathway Journey.

House is transitional housing aimed at supporting women who have children and are going through treatment, conquer their addictions and regain custody of their children.

>> A transitional living I O p or intensive outpatient program.

So we go through intensive outpatient parenting in Bloom, Anger Management.

We offer are various different peer services medication, management and primary care providers.

We had 2 facilities part of this.

We had an 8 but facility in Greenup any 6 but facility in Carter County.

And we said we stayed full so being able to open up at 25.

That facility allows women coming out of jail, allows women leaving the hospital with the CBS.

>> It provides a lot of safety and security and the chance for all of our consumers and all of Wake County to get to understand and experience recovery.

Long-term struggle with addiction for you now about 20 years and I've now programs, but >> and like I said, this one is different.

I've been here for 3 months and my life has changed dramatically.

My parents were here and and I went from not having a relationship with him to having a wonderful relationship with and I talk to them daily.

They're very supportive there here constantly.

And, you know, they can doesn't mean all that.

My kids out of relationship with them today.

I'm and, you know, trying to regain custody back of my younger, too.

So and a lot of things have changed in my life since I've been in this program, some of our consumers aren't able to have kids on their own.

They have to have supervision with the CBS.

>> So being able to bring your kid allows you to KET your kid in treatment with you.

While also providing you the tools necessary to sustain recovery.

I think that, you know, it speaks volumes to places like this in and the widespread.

>> A problem with addiction a day.

And, you know, we need places like this for us to recover.

If we don't then, I mean, all we're going to see is more overdoses.

>> Additions, a very complex.

It's not just decided to go get high and now this is where my life is.

It's a very complex disorder.

And it's something that is 100% treatable.

I see it every single day.

I've seen that in the 4 years that I've done this type of work and it's a beautiful thing to get to see the light click on and many of our staff are in recovery themselves.

So we see long-term recovery.

Every single day in our peer support specialists that are absolutely life-altering for the first base.

You see when you walk through the door, they're the ones that are really the hope tellers and recovery is its unique.

Everybody has their own path, but it's 100% double thing.

It's just work.

>> Pathways currently has services in Boyd Carter, Greene up, Lawrence, Bath Mina Feet, Montgomery, Morgan and Rowan counties.

Well, 30 year lost law students at the University of Kentucky are taking steps to write terrible wrongs from the past.

The civil rights and restorative Justice Clinic allows students to research unsolved murder cases involving racial violence in the Jim Crow era.

Commonwealth in an attempt to find justice for the victims.

>> The project itself isn't developed exclusively here at Kentucky.

It actually has an origin at birth Eastern school flaws cause if there is to investigate cold cases of racial violence and lynchings throughout it.

Jim Crow era throughout the south and he's been moving up from the south and started to touch what they refer to as border states.

It Kentucky and the idea was to try to talk to folks here on the ground here at UK law.

We cannot develop the project herself.

So the civil sort of justice program in Kentucky is a clinical program.

>> And so we define clinical program by opportunities for students are really getting to engage in real life work, right?

Whether it's representing clients do case research, et cetera.

But the work they're doing is not simulated.

It's not a hypothetical, right?

It's real world.

>> Right now I'm working on to kind of 3 cases my role is kind of like I call myself a cold case.

Detective so we go through and look at archival materials.

So >> census records, birth records, World War 2, one draft cards.

Stuff like that to get a more full picture of who they were.

We've been working these cases for the 7, 8, months.

>> If you do start to feel like you know them and we have a connection with them and it can be hard knowing what happened to them in the end.

If I like marriage certificate of live birth of their children and then knowing how they live and can be really hard.

We're investigating cold cases, but we're also looking for restorative justice for victims.

We know what happened to them.

And we know most of the perpetrators are so beautiful about art, but we do need to figure out how to get justice for them.

For some of these people like the kill them.

Trials.

But it wasn't fair.

Now the element of bias.

But what we're finding in terms of the larger element of this violence >> is that it can be sort of interpersonal individual instances, but absolutely first to state sanction.

But it comes to police.

Violence is also kind of becoming a commonality as we look into it, thinking we're investigating.

A lot of these cases.

Sometimes this alleged criminality was the be black in Kentucky.

It's about knowledge that we can't move forward and people have trust in whatever systems and policy changes and whatever work we do.

If we don't actually knowledge with the past truly was people were hurt.

People were harmed.

That historical memory lately.

Stars, right, mentally physically on families on communities.

So my hope is that what we are able to do >> is that when we're thinking about things like redlining in and looking at the way the law has been created, whether it's tax law or how we developed park sort whether or how we're joeys and whatever that is this information and this knowledge goes into the minds of the people who are in charge of those things.

If they have them in mind, they'll do better the next time.

>> The project was launched as a pilot program last fall.

But UK officials approved it as a clinical course at the law school faculty says they hope to eventually create a database to house the cases and discuss Kentucky civil rights violations.

A new program is giving Kentuckians the opportunity to train for jobs in several high-demand industries.

Get this for free and even better without leaving their home.

>> Ready for industry is an opportunity for individuals all across the state who have an interest in the career field to learn more about it.

So it's an online course that you can register for.

There are 5 modules based on the top 5 industries that are nationwide.

And then you can go online self-paced to take that course and learn everything about that industry.

What the industry does.

What are the current jobs?

What's the vocabulary?

What are the hot jobs that are in that industry and the culture so that, you know, whether or not it might be something, you'd be interested it so someone could go through.

Of course, 15 to 20 hours and pay for and walk away.

Having a really good sense of what the expectations are and whether or not it might be a fit for them.

And then we have them paired up with education and training partners all across the state and they may finish that and say I want to move forward there into a job.

We can enroll them in training, help them identify registered apprenticeship or some other means that they can move forward and advance their skills.

And in some cases that's just going through.

That is enough to be able to interview with an employee or get a job.

>> It allows him to explore, you know, some they they might have been thinking about that.

But then they also 5 on there be able to do something like that.

But this actually takes him.

The step-by-step and, you know, sets them up for success and being in somewhere where they can grow high growth industry sector.

You know that they haven't opportunities to move in that company, but it gets to them a foot in the door to and they and the businesses are probably very appreciative, you know, to see, have got someone that, you know, understands.

And this a person that I can hire and bring on board.

And I think it sets them up for success.

>> It's absolutely free to any citizen in the Commonwealth.

So we're working with all of our partners in the workforce development, eco system to be able to provide this opportunity to any Kentucky n who's interested in accessing it.

Sometimes.

>> People don't really realize what skills they have until maybe when you're sitting down with someone and you know, in conversation to actually bring that out.

So I think that our goal and our responsibility is to do just that, you know, get to know the individual and get them on a career path that's going to meet what they want to do, whether it's financially with his passion for what they're doing or what have you been understanding their needs for anybody who is interested in exploring new opportunities in their career field?

This is a great way to get a sense of what it's like without having to step on the plant floor.

>> Or to walk into a hospital or to be on a construction site.

You can get the feel you can determine whether or not it's a direction that you want to go.

And then we've got you connected with somebody can who can help you get across the finish line.

>> Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are praising a new multimillion-dollar center in Louisville, Goodwill, West Louisville Opportunity Center Open last March and has already provided free services to more than 1000 people.

>> We've met a lot of people in West Louisville here who are living in poverty and don't have a lot of choices in their lives that who are highly motivated.

For something better.

And we did.

That would be the case before we came here because we have the center's not as big as this one, but we have the centers and 8 other communities.

And we say that over and over people who are stuck in circumstances like don't want to be an and what I just get a sense that something else is possible for them.

Our will and just run through brick walls to build an a lot.

So we have seen that here in West Louisville, just as we say that in other communities at a good.

Well, we are all about opening up pathways to allow people into that new law.

I would grab out of his sight.

>> Over and over again.

And 1, 1, to one thing will happen if I want to have in it, it happen.

>> All of a sudden this thing started popping up and the bar all that capacity here.

And as you know, it reverberates throughout the area is full concentration of services and economic capacity that did not exist.

And there's more yet to come.

You know, if you change.

>> Person's outlook.

You give them hope, but knowing that they can have a different economic trajectory.

That they will have a good job, good health care.

The potential to go on vacation to go to those family reunions know when they get 65 or 66.

And thank You give them that help with that opportunity to get the economic trajectory.

Then you're going to see a difference in the community.

You're not going to see as we just want to see as much time.

It is our challenge every day that we sell, we push.

We encourage hope to those who come through the door.

It's hope that we do for those 1020 people that we've already brought in this new clients to his location and he still grow.

Hope is what we do.

When we talk about the almost 43,000 total services that we provide it on.

>> All the partners that provide services at this location and still growing.

Hope is what we provide to the homeless and those who have barriers so that we can reduce those barriers, not just get a job.

But to be successful in the parade.

And so there are 2 things that we try to get people when they come here.

>> One of those things as we want to have as many different services and resources as >> possible for you to take to get answers to those things that have held us back and we don't have it.

We're going to fight for Ye because the second thing that people get when they come here at our and you are other opportunities centers.

Yes, they get somebody instead of being a Koran.

If they get somebody who cares, how about whether they succeed or not?

We find that have any answers and having a support system is the thing that allows people to hope.

And how is the thing that allows them to have the motivation, but they're going to need to work hard for that new loss.

>> The 125,000 Square-foot Resource Center cost 50 million dollars and is the largest mission related investment in Goodwill's 100 year history.

Well, we hope you'll join us again tomorrow night at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central for Kentucky edition, where we inform connect and inspire subscribe to our Kentucky Edition email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips at KET Dot Org.

You can also find Kentucky Edition on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV.

Send us a story idea at public affairs at K E T Dot Org.

You can follow us on the social media.

We're there as well.

You can follow KET on Facebook on X, which is formally known as Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Thank you so much for spending this time with us.

Take good care.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪