{"id":103077,"date":"2017-12-11T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=103077"},"modified":"2017-12-05T15:16:41","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T15:16:41","slug":"inside-a-judges-rehab-unpaid-work-at-a-local-coca-cola-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/12\/inside-a-judges-rehab-unpaid-work-at-a-local-coca-cola-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside a Judge\u2019s Rehab: Unpaid Work at a Local Coca-Cola Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4 Dec 2017 – <\/em>Retired Oklahoma Judge Thomas Landrith is hailed as a hero of criminal justice reform.<\/p>\n

He started the first rural drug court in the nation and has reaped awards<\/a> for sending defendants to treatment rather than prison. Most judges in the state model their drug courts after his.<\/p>\n

But Landrith also is involved in a more sinister byproduct of criminal justice reform.<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade ago, Landrith started his own rehab work camp where defendants must work full time for free at a local Coca-Cola bottling plant and other companies, under threat of prison if they don\u2019t comply. They are required to say they\u2019re unemployed and turn over their food stamps to the program, which state regulators say is fraud. And on their days off, some worked for free mowing Landrith\u2019s lawn and doing yard work around his property.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a joke, that\u2019s all it is,\u201d said Justin Manion, who was sent to Southern Oklahoma Addiction Recovery<\/a> \u2013 also known as SOAR \u2013 by a judge this year. \u201cIt\u2019s a shitty place.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest discovery in an ongoing investigation<\/a> by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting into rehab programs across the country that promise defendants freedom from addiction but instead turn them into indentured servants for private industry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

While at SOAR in Ada, Okla., defendants must work full time for free at a local Coca-Cola bottling plant and other companies, under threat of prison if they don\u2019t comply. Credit: Shane Bevel for Reveal<\/p><\/div>\n

Coca-Cola\u2019s guidelines<\/a> for its independent bottling plants prohibit forced labor. In response to Reveal\u2019s reporting, the Ada Coca-Cola Bottling Co. said it would suspend its use of SOAR, saying in a statement that it takes \u201cthe concerns that have been raised seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have participated in the SOAR program because of the good we have seen it can do for people in our community and are hopeful we can work with SOAR to revise the terms of the program so that we can resume participation in the future,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The involvement of one of Oklahoma\u2019s most celebrated judges exposes just how pervasive this type of rehab model has become, implicating major corporations<\/a>, powerful politicians<\/a> and even those whose job is to uphold the law. And it lays bare a litany of ethical and legal problems that can arise in the process, even in programs started with the best intentions.<\/p>\n

Many defendants sent to SOAR have not yet been convicted of crimes, making their forced labor a potential violation of the 13th Amendment ban on slavery and involuntary servitude, according to legal experts.<\/p>\n

State ethics rules<\/a> say a judge should not serve as an officer of an organization whose proceedings might come before him or her. Landrith currently is an unpaid SOAR board member<\/a> \u2013 a position he\u2019s held since 2014 \u2013 and has sent at least nine defendants from his drug court to SOAR since 2010, records from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services show.<\/p>\n

Landrith retired from the bench in 2014 but continues to work as the drug court judge in Pontotoc County as an unpaid volunteer. He said he tries to avoid sending men to his program, but doesn\u2019t consider it a violation of the rules.<\/p>\n

The rules still apply to retired judges, said Eric Mitts, director of the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, the judge should stay away from accepting a position that might create a conflict of interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Labor conquers all\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Landrith started SOAR in 2008 as his drug court was grappling with a shortage of affordable treatment programs. The Pontotoc County jail was so overcrowded<\/a> that when Landrith meted out punishment for dirty drug tests, some defendants ended up sleeping outside. His rehab program would cost defendants and taxpayers nothing. All those in the program had to do was work.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor conquers all,\u201d Landrith said. \u201cSome of those people have never worked a day in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, SOAR houses about 55 men and women who work at a Coca-Cola bottling plant<\/a>, a car wash owned by a board member<\/a>, a roofing company, local motels and a Leachco factory that makes pregnancy pillows sold at Babies R Us, Nordstrom and Bed Bath & Beyond.<\/p>\n

While women in the program get to keep some of their pay, men get nothing. The companies pay SOAR for all the labor and don\u2019t have to pay for workers\u2019 taxes or workers\u2019 compensation insurance, according to the rehab program.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere at Ada Coca-Cola, we hire SOAR men because they\u2019re dependable, reliable and they save us money,\u201d a company representative said in a 2015 promotional video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kevin Lowe, the hiring manager at Ultimate Carwashes said the company\u2019s priority is helping the men. Putting them to work is the only way most are able to afford treatment, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s against the law, then shame on the law,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cI see men get their lives back and become fathers and husbands and contributing members of society again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to working, the men are required to attend a group counseling session once a week and church services twice a week. If they complete the six-month program without breaking any rules, they\u2019re eligible for a $500 stipend.<\/p>\n

Reveal spoke with more than a dozen men who attended the SOAR program. All but one said the program was more concerned with work than their recovery. Cody Evans called it \u201cthe worst experience of my life.\u201d Dustin Barnes called the people who run SOAR \u201ccrooks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dustin Barnes was sent to SOAR in 2015. While there, Barnes said he was ordered to do yard work for Judge Thomas Landrith, including cleaning brush from his creek bed and mowing his lawn. Credit: Shane Bevel for Reveal<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201c \u2018If you can\u2019t work, your ass should not be here.\u2019 They tell you that when you first get there,\u201d said Lee Purdy, who was court-ordered to SOAR and worked at Leachco. \u201cThis ain\u2019t the place for you if you can\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

If men got hurt or were too sick to work, the program often kicked them out, they said. Some worked despite being injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me mad and feel like I really wasn\u2019t worth nothing,\u201d said Lucas Allen, one of the men Landrith sent to SOAR in 2015. He said he was forced to work with an injured hand. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s like they didn\u2019t care what happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best way to re-establish some kind of self-worth in those individuals,\u201d said board President Duane Murray. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing better, more therapeutic than getting up and doing what everybody else does on a regularly scheduled basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landrith told Reveal that he expects SOAR to get sued for its work practices, as two other Oklahoma rehabs<\/a> have recently. If that happens, he said, most defendants going to work-based programs will probably end up going to prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started the SOAR program because there was no place to send anybody. It\u2019s still that way,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what everybody wants the endgame to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other programs that resemble SOAR pay their participants for their labor. And most don\u2019t have their participants perform free yard work for a judge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were cleaning brush in his creek bed behind his house,\u201d said Barnes, whom a judge sent to SOAR in 2015. \u201cCleaning his gutters. Mowing his lawn. Doing hedges. He was there hanging out, like he was one of the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landrith said he donated a lawnmower and their pay to SOAR.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Judge Landrith started SOAR in 2008 as his drug court was grappling with a shortage of affordable treatment programs. Credit: Shane Bevel for Reveal<\/p><\/div>\n

Abusing the food stamp program<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cody Theriac thought he\u2019d caught a break when a drug court judge in Tulsa decided to give him another chance at rehab instead of sending him to prison.<\/p>\n

But when Theriac arrived at SOAR, his first stop wasn\u2019t to a drug and alcohol counselor. It was to the local food stamp office in Ada.<\/p>\n

Theriac never had applied for food stamps before. As he sat in the drab government office, a SOAR employee coached him on exactly what to say.<\/p>\n

He had to say he was unemployed, he remembered, even though a few days later he would be working full time at Leachco. He should say he was in a rehab. And once he got his benefit card, he had to turn it over to SOAR.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t this fraud?\u201d Theriac remembers asking SOAR administrators at the time. \u201cI kept getting the same answers: \u2018This is no big deal, this is how it\u2019s done.\u2019 The whole time I thought, if I don\u2019t do what they said, I would go to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Theriac did it. He left the Department of Human Services office with a food stamp card that day.<\/p>\n

SOAR confiscated Theriac\u2019s benefit card, locking it in a safe with those of other participants. Every few weeks, SOAR administrators would take a handful of men in the program to the local Walmart, where they were forced to use their cards to buy food for the entire rehab, they said.<\/p>\n

A dozen other SOAR participants confirmed that they also were told what to say to qualify for a benefit card and then ordered to relinquish it to SOAR.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is against the law,\u201d said Debra Martin, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. \u201cThe people who this happened to need to call us or email us and let us know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some drug and alcohol rehab centers are allowed to apply for special food stamps for clients and legally purchase food on their behalf. But SOAR is not one of these approved programs and never has applied for these special benefit cards, according to the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny incorrect information on the application would be a crime in and of itself,\u201d said Joe Glover, a department agent who investigates food stamp fraud. \u201cThe card is only for the individual. It\u2019s not for a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray, SOAR\u2019s board president, called the participants of SOAR \u201cvolunteers, not employees,\u201d saying they weren\u2019t technically employed anywhere. He said the rehab had worked out an arrangement with the local Department of Human Services office when it came to food stamps.<\/p>\n

Martin said the department is unaware of any such deal.<\/p>\n

A questionable rehab model<\/strong><\/p>\n

Landrith got the idea for SOAR from Raymond Jones, a convicted meth dealer who once came through his court.<\/p>\n

After Landrith ordered Jones to complete a similar work-based rehab program nearly 20 years ago, Jones told Landrith that he had found God and was a changed man \u2013 so much so that he decided to start a rehab of his own, called the Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program.<\/p>\n

Jones also helped launch Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery, a rehab that provides labor to chicken processing plants using unpaid workers. As a result of Reveal\u2019s original investigation<\/a>, participants filed a total of four class-action lawsuits against the two rehabs, alleging human trafficking and fraud. The program is now the subject of two government investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaymond is a very smart guy. We thought, \u2018Well, if they could do this, why can\u2019t we?\u2019 \u201d Landrith recalled. \u201cSo Raymond and I decided to do one here. He was the person who said, \u2018I think we could do this.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Jones confirmed that he consulted with Landrith on the creation of SOAR but said he is no longer involved.<\/p>\n

Like its predecessors, SOAR has become indispensable to courts looking for alternatives to prison. At least 15 drug courts from across Oklahoma have sent defendants to SOAR since 2010, records show.<\/p>\n

Some judges send defendants to the program to get them away from bad influences or into stable housing. But others have used the program instead of certified treatment, a potential violation of state law.<\/p>\n

The Oklahoma Drug Court Act<\/a> requires drug courts to send defendants for treatment at certified facilities with trained counselors and regular inspections. SOAR is uncertified and says the best cure for addiction is hard work.<\/p>\n

Neither the courts nor the program have ever measured its success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never worked that much in my life. I was exhausted every day,\u201d said Jesse James Ward, who worked for a roofing company and completed SOAR in 2015.<\/p>\n

Not long after leaving the program, he was charged with drug possession.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

This story was edited by Andrew Donohue and Amy Pyle and copy edited by Nadia Wynter and Nikki Frick.<\/em><\/p>\n

Amy Julia Harris can be reached at <\/em>aharris@revealnews.org<\/em><\/a>, and Shoshana Walter can be reached at <\/em>swalter@revealnews.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 revealnews.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 Dec 2017 – Retired Oklahoma Judge Thomas Landrith started nearly a decade ago his own rehab work camp where defendants must work full time for free at a local Coca-Cola bottling plant and other companies, under threat of prison. They are required to say they\u2019re unemployed and turn over their food stamps to the program, which is fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":103079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exposures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}