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Organization offers treatment scholarship to heroin addict who asked for jail sentence
YOUNGSTOWN
Seated under the fluorescent lighting of a small room with a tiled floor, Kayla Dempsey – wide-eyed and dressed in an orange jumpsuit – silently clasped her hands over her gaping mouth.
It was several minutes later before she was able to get out the words: “Thank you. I didn’t expect – I’m shocked.”
Unknown to her since she began a 30-day sentence after asking to be sent to jail so she could get clean from heroin, a local organization heard her story – first reported by The Vindicator – and decided to help.
Solace of the Valley, an organization dedicated to dealing with drug addiction in the Valley, visited Dempsey, 25, at the county jail Tuesday to offer her a scholarship for 30 days at a treatment center in Florida.
“You opened up the door to getting better, and we want to help you close it,” said Anna Howells, executive director of the nonprofit.
The scholarship, one of three scholarships valued at roughly $30,000 that Changes Treatment Center donated to Solace of the Valley, is in honor of Anna’s son. Dennis Howells died from a drug overdose in 2013 at age 30.
Dempsey made her request to Judge Elizabeth Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court at a July 15 hearing, at which Dempsey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drug charge. Dempsey also faces two years’ probation for the drug-instrument possession charge.
The charge stems from her April 25 arrest on South Schenley Avenue, where a police officer found a needle in her possession. She was arrested on a warrant July 13 after she missed a court appearance on the charge.
Dempsey said Tuesday that she recently relapsed after being clean for five years. A jail sentence was a way for her to detox, but she acknowledged that it’s not an ideal environment for recovery.
“It’s hard. It’s jail. It’s not supposed to be pleasant,” she said, adding that it’s difficult to deal with the symptoms of heroin withdrawal without medical help.
“It’s absolutely overwhelming,” she said of the scholarship, which she readily accepted.
“My gratitude for this is unreal. I couldn’t afford any of this on my own. ... And I was afraid that getting out after 30 days wouldn’t be enough,” she said, breaking into tears.
If it works out, Solace of the Valley members would like Dempsey to go straight from the jail to the treatment center, and then from there to a sober-living facility in Cleveland.
In the meantime, they want Dempsey to keep working on her recovery.
“Take care of yourself. We’ll do the rest,” Eric Ungaro, president of Solace, told her.