Published: August 26, 2008 08:42 am      

UNITE takes care of the little things

By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

When a suspected drug dealer is arrested in an early morning drug roundup, the local UNITE Coalition, made up of community leaders, pastors and other volunteers, makes sure the little things are taken care of.

They feed the cat, make sure the kids have a ride from school, and contact family members to let them know what’s happened.

They also make sure some bigger, spiritual needs, are addressed.

“The reason I’m here is because I know these folks need some kind of spiritual counseling,” said J.W. Binnon, pastor at Wesley Chapel Independent Methodist in Corbin and chaplain with local Civil War reenactment groups. “We’re here to help them and their families. They’re going to do their time and pay for their crime, but we’re here to let them know that the Lord loves them and wants them back.”

After suspects were arrested in Monday’s indictment warrant roundup in Knox County, they were brought to the National Guard Armory in Barbourville for processing, where many would sit for hours in a series of numbered folding chairs before being taken to jail.

Leonard Lester, pastor of First Advent Christian Church in Barbourville, has attended several Operation UNITE roundups and said he is rarely turned away when he approaches the recently arrested for spiritual and practical counseling.

“It’s an opportunity to catch people in the position of vulnerability and openness,” he said. “They’re in a crisis in their life, and you can come along side of them and offer an alternative to the path that they’ve been on ... It’s an open window and we want to try to help with that.”

Binnon, Lawson and the other handful of volunteers said they don’t make anyone talk to them, but they do offer prayer, advice and some practical help when asked.

“We don’t want to put them on a guilt trip, because we all make bad choices, but we do want to offer them some help,” said Claudia Greenwood with the UNITE Coalition. “Just because you do things that are bad doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person.”

Greenwood admitted that her compassion makes it hard for her to see the bad in people.

Frank Hamilton, who was arrested on three counts of second-degree trafficking, didn’t admit to selling drugs, but did admit to using.

“They asked if I cared to give a statement, to let people know kind of what drugs have done to my life and stuff like that,” Hamilton said. “I let them know that it pretty much ruined my life, but there was treatment programs to get into if they wanted to help themselves.”

Hamilton said he’d been using pain killers for about six to eight months before he sought help. He was never given a prescription, but instead purchased the drugs illegally.

“I know it kind of sounds stupid, but I was having knee problems and it was hurting, and I started from hydrocodone and went on up because it wasn’t helping,” Hamilton said. “Toward the end, I was using a lot. I was doing, maybe, 400 milligram of oxy (oxycodone) a day before I started rehab.”

Though UNITE officers say they have made several controlled purchases of drugs from him, when asked if he sold drugs, Hamilton said, “not that I know of.”

Lawson said that often, those arrested for drug crimes aren’t aware of the impact they are really having on their health, their families and their communities.

“A lot of these people are making what they think are good choices for them, under their circumstances, but it will lead to death — to theirs or somebody else’s,” Lawson said.