EVANSVILLE - Most people who plead guilty to dealing methamphetamine would be starting their day with breakfast in prison, but Kevin Behrisch starts his days by going to his office, collecting his crew and heading out to a job site.
The 37-year-old former Marine credits his acceptance into Vanderburgh County’s Veterans Treatment Court with setting him on the path to success after years of struggling with substance abuse.
“He is a really good example of somebody who did a good job of turning things around. I could see a huge boost to his self-esteem as his business took off,” said Todd Wilson, Behrisch’s case manager.
Like many veterans, Behrisch floated through the sea of civilian life on a raft of alcohol and drugs.
But a proliferation of Veterans Treatment Courts across the country are helping to guide vets back to a healthy place in life when substance abuse causes them to collide with the criminal justice system.
“We were the first practicing Veterans Treatment Court in the state of Indiana,” said Circuit Court Judge David Kiely. “We knew there was a need for it.”
Kiely oversees the veterans court as well as the county’s regular drug court, and its alcohol and drug probation services.
“We’re treating a wide variety of veterans,” Wilson said. “Veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, their needs may be a little bit different from Vietnam veterans who have been out for a long time.”
Medicating with alcohol and drugs is not uncommon for veterans coping with post-traumatic stress disorder from combat experiences and the stress of the unstructured freedom of civilian life, Wilson said.
“I wish I had done this 30 years ago,” said Sidney Beard.
The 65-year-old Army veteran came to the treatment court program after he was arrested for driving while intoxicated.
In his second year with the program, Beard now works as a mentor to other struggling veterans.
“Veterans can understand veterans better. They can talk to each other better about their experiences,” he said. “Working with other veterans, you hear some really weird stories.”
The court works closely with local Veterans Affairs officials to screen and assess participants, said Jennifer Frye, who is the Homeless and Veterans Outreach case manager at the Evansville VA clinic.
In addition, Frye helps troubled veterans with resources for housing, medical treatment, counseling, benefits and even residential rehabilitation treatment.
“We can get them into services so much faster,” she said.
Beard said he had no contacts with the VA until he entered Veterans Treatment Court.
“If there are veterans who really want help, the VA here (in Evansville) will get it for you,” he said.
The county’s treatment court program provides the structure and guidance to keep them on the right path.
“We’re kind of like their accountability partner,” Wilson said. “Just in a short period we see a huge difference.”
Working with the VA to address all of its participants’ problems is part of the treatment court’s flexible approach to working with each individual veteran, Wilson said.
So when Behrisch came to him in 2013 with a proposal to start his own subcontracting business for landscaping, decks, fencing and interior construction, Wilson worked with him to assess where he was in life.
“He was really pretty motivated already. I didn’t really doubt he had the desire. Once a Marine, always a Marine. He had that gung-ho attitude,” Wilson said.
Before signing off on it, however, Wilson helped Behrisch evaluate his situation to make sure that he would be able to make it with rent, gasoline costs and other expenses.
Behrisch — who still reports to Kiely and Wilson twice a month to maintain accountability — must account for his expenses and profits so the court can make sure he follows through.
Acceptance into the program is not free pass from jail. The court operates as a three-year program. During the first 18 months, participants are tested daily for alcohol and drug use and work closely with a case manager. If that is successfully completed, participants spend 18 months under the supervision of the county’s alcohol and drug probation services.
“The court has the authority to make them attend treatment,” Kiely said.
There are consequences for not complying. Behrisch learned firsthand about that.
After months of avoiding law enforcement, Behrisch was eventually arrested on suspicion of dealing methamphetamine in November 2011. After sitting in jail for nearly a year, he pleaded guilty to the charge and was accepted into Veterans Treatment Court in September 2012, but his attitude hadn’t changed and he continued drinking.
A month later, Kiely sentenced Behrisch to 16 days in jail violating court rules and using alcohol.
“They put me right back in the same cell,” Behrisch said.
He had walked right back into his old life.
“It was my epiphany,” he said. “I realized life is not going to change. I have to change.”
Behrisch had developed a drinking problem after high school and nurtured it during his service in the Marines, where he served as a helicopter mechanic and aerial observer in the Philippines.
“I got in trouble several times. I would be doing well with whatever treatment I was doing so I would stop,” he said. “I thought it would be different next time, every time.”
After marrying an Evansville woman and moving here in 2007, his troubles continued.
“I basically stopped drinking for two years, but I didn’t change. If anything, I got worse,” Behrisch said. “During my divorce I lived emotionally. I thought self-destruction was the perfect way to get back at society and the world was to destroy myself.”
In 2011, Behrisch turned to making and using meth. But it was that self-destructive intention that led to his turn around.
“This program has altered the course of my life more than anything else. It really made me begin to look at myself and my habits,” he said. “Two years ago I was so far removed from where I am now. I don’t have bad days anymore, even when horrible things happen.”