incentives and sanctions, so immediacy
is very important. It doesn’t really help
much to change a behavior if you do some-
thing wrong and then you have to wait
a week or two to come to court to have
it addressed. So we stay in touch by text
and email, and I usually have some type
of conference or meeting with at least
one of the probation officers every day,
whether it’s a drug court day or not.”
Despite her full schedule, Keller has
cherished her time with the drug court
program.
“My favorite part has been meeting
the participants and getting to know
them,” she says. “As a judge, normally
your role is very detached and you don’t
really know a lot of the back story about
the people. With our folks in drug court,
we follow them and their struggles from
the beginning to graduation, and this is a
program that lasts a minimum of a year
and oftentimes more than that. I’ve met
some of the nicest people—nice people
in some really bad situations who have
made some bad decisions.”
In 2016, Keller was part of a team that
gained grant funding to expand the drug court system to include the Women’s Em-
powerment and Addiction Recovery, or
W.E.A.R., program, which is for women
whose backgrounds include prostitution
and trafficking to support a drug habit.
The program provides extra counseling
and trauma therapy. The grant, which just
completed its second of three years, al-
lowed the county to grow the drug court
program by one-third and hire a second
probation officer.
Since the debut of “Heroin(e),” Keller
has stepped aside from the day-to-day op-
erations of drug court in order to focus
more on her family court position, but the
experience will no doubt provide a unique
perspective for practicing family law.
“I now have the opportunity to look for
other ways to work within the drug issue,”
she says. “One of the things we’re seeing
right now in family court is a huge number
of grandparents raising their grandchil-
dren because the children’s parents are
either in the madness, on the streets, in
jail or dead from drugs. I really want to
try to see what types of resources we can
put together to help these folks. I think
my time in drug court has helped me see different sides of this issue. I have dealt
with mothers and fathers who had their
children staying with other relatives while
they were addicted to drugs. Then when
they started the recovery process and
wanted to reconnect with their families,
I’ve seen the hesitation and distrust from
those families because they’ve heard all
the excuses before. I think the biggest
thing I’ve discovered is drug court is just
one layer. This drug problem is like an
onion, and there are just so many layers
of things we need to tackle.”
and in 2017, they were on pace to match
those numbers. receive federal funding, but it is prohibited
from using federal funds to purchase
syringes and cookers. However, that
money can be used to staff the program
and purchase other supplies. longer using to get high but rather to avoid
the symptoms of withdrawal.
“Our program has saved about 100 lives
this year, and that is at the same time
that our death rate in the county is still
going up,” says Kilkenny. “I can say that
the number of deaths would have been
worse without this program, but that is a
really weak statement to make. We didn’t
come here to lose by a smaller margin. We
came here to win, and I can’t say that yet.”
The services offered by the Harm Reduction
Program also helped keep drug overdose
from graduating from the number three
cause of death in the city of Huntington
to the number two cause of death.
“A lot of people want to know what
the treatment costs are, but I’m more
concerned with the suffering of the human
being than I am with what it costs,” says
Kilkenny.
People who choose to utilize the Harm
Reduction Program do not have to provide
their names, and they can send a friend
or family member to do the exchange
for them.
“We stopped overdose from surpassing
cancer as a killer in Huntington,” he says.
“If a health officer can’t get excited about a
program like that, then he can’t get excited
about anything.” “Someone else can come for you as long
as they bring and properly dispose of
your used needles,” says Kilkenny. “Not
everyone who needs this program can
come during business hours because
they might be at work.”
The needle exchange program is funded by
a variety of philanthropic grants and private
donations. The health department does According to Kilkenny, because a tolerance
to opiates can develop quickly, the majority
of people who are long-term users are no
“I’ve met some of
the nicest people—
nice people in some
really bad situations
who have made some
bad decisions.”
“It’s not a good place to be,” he says.
“You’re in survival mode, and that’s the
life you live. You can’t stop using or you’ll
get sick, but you really can’t get high any
more. If you’re going through withdrawal,
who’s going to go to work? Who’s going
to watch your children while you’re away
going through recovery? We have a lot
of people who are completely functional
who are using opioids regularly and not
getting high. We want to make sure when
they make the decision to get clean, they
are as healthy as they can be.”
While Kilkenny sees a tangible impact from
his work, he hasn’t seen the turnaround
moment yet that suggests things are getting
better.
“I’m optimistic that in overdoses, we’ve
seen the worst year in 2017,” he says. “I’m
optimistic for 2018 to be better because I
can’t imagine it being worse.”
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