February 23, 2023

Opportunities to turn one’s life around are abundant in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center if one is open-minded and ready to do the work necessary to be successful. Carl and Dana are inmates who chose to participate in the Striving to Achieve Recovery (STAR) program to address their respective substance use disorders. The program includes three phases that help each participant develop knowledge, set goals with measurable outcomes, maintain regular contact with an external recovery support person, determine what solution will work best for themselves, and then create a sustainable recovery plan to achieve it.

Upon entering the third phase of STAR, Dana volunteered for kitchen duty and was selected for the In2Work program, sponsored by Aramark in partnership with the Sheriff’s Office. Beyond spending several weeks of hands-on learning of kitchen basics and restaurant management, In2Work participants learn how to be successful job applicants. As a second-chance employer, Aramark is committed to supporting In2Work graduates beyond incarceration and encourages them to apply for jobs with the company as they approach their release date.

Dana earned his certification from In2Work last year and continues to work in the kitchen as a mentor. He comes from a family of five children, all with college degrees, and is the only one to end up in jail. Raised in Spanish Harlem, he joined the Army after high school, later moved to Washington, D.C., and attended the University of the District of Columbia. He was a structural engineer for 23 years.

He admits that he turned to alcohol to numb the pain of his marriage breaking up. After five years of drinking, he hit rock bottom, which ultimately led to his arrest and incarceration. “Through the STAR program, I learned what I could have done differently, but I don’t focus on the ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda,’” he explains.” “I look at what I can do and what I will do when I get out.”

Carl is new to the kitchen and also was selected for In2Work. He has been in short-term recovery programs before but admits he never took them seriously enough. He considers STAR a long-term inpatient program by virtue of it being inside a jail. “It’s a nonstop and consistent process that has saved my life."

Now 36 years old, Carl ran away from an abusive home life as a teenager and ended up homeless and addicted to drugs by the time he was 20. “I’ve learned through STAR that recovery is taking one day at a time – baby steps – and I have been given many, many tools to stay sober tomorrow.”

Carl will be released from the ADC in a few weeks and is committed to meeting the STAR program’s recommendation of attending 90 Narcotics Anonymous meetings in the first 90 days. “I want to secure my sobriety. I want to be present and sober for my kids.”