A CLOSER LOOK; ADDICTION, PART 2 OF 2: Floyd County native discovers life after prison

JEFFERSONVILLE — It was Oct. 1, 2007. Andrew Tesch was a free man after being released from the Kentucky Department of Corrections.

Instead of being excited, be was lost. He had only a few dollars, the clothes on his back and a one-way bus ticket to Louisville he was given at the prison.

“Here I am with no money, no nothing. Just a bus ticket,” Tesch said.

Tesch, who is now 42 living in Pekin, moved to New Albany and met up with old acquaintances. He went back to the life he had known before prison and began smoking crack cocaine and printing counterfeit currency.

Less than three months after he was released, he walked into the Motel 6 in Georgetown pretending he had a handgun and demanded money. By early February 2008, he was arrested and then later convicted of class C felony robbery.

The story is common in Indiana and across the nation. The Indiana Department of Correction’s recidivism rate, or the percentage of offenders who return to incarceration within three years, was at 37.4 percent in 2008.

“People forget about us,” Tesch said.

By people, he means family, friends and society in general.

Tesch grew up in what he describes as a half-million dollar home in Floyd County where his neighbors were doctors and lawyers, but his childhood was not picture perfect. Due to his parents’ personal problems, he and his sister raised themselves for long periods of time, he said.

Tesch was addicted to cocaine by age 15. Despite having a high IQ score, he dropped out of Floyd Central High School his sophomore year or, as he describes it, the day he found out how easy it was to pass a General Education Development test.

His first major run in with the law occurred when he was 19. He said he was high when he and his friend burglarized a house in Floyd County. His friend stole a drill and a hammer, and they were arrested.

It did not take long before Tesch was well-known throughout the area. He used three-way calling to dial the front desk at the Floyd County Jail, and while pretending to be a local judge, he ordered them to “release Tesch on his own recognizance.” His fellow inmates sat in shock as a corrections officer opened the door to the jail and told him he was free to leave.

Tesch spent the rest of the summer in Myrtle Beach until police received a tip about his location and drove to South Carolina to arrest him. Since then, he has had plenty of legal trouble.

According to court records, Tesch has at least 13 convictions starting in 1989. Those include burglaries, receiving stolen property, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.

OxyContin becomes driving force

Tesch never had an opiate addiction until 2000 after he was involved in a vehicle wreck. He tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder.

Following surgery, he was prescribed OxyContin. He took the drug as prescribed for more than a month until he visited his wife’s relatives in Hazard, Ky. A cousin asked him what he was taking for pain medication, and when Tesch told him, his eyes lit up. He asked him for a pill, smashed it in a dollar bill and began to sniff it. He called it “hillbilly heroin.”

Tesch said he tried it and began vomiting violently, but it felt good. The drug immediately took control of his life.

“Whatever I had to do to weasel some pills out of people, I’d do,” he said.

That means waiting outside a hospital for a doctor he knew would give him pills or hitting up old friends from high school that had become doctors. He even received pills from a gynecologist.

At one point, he was “juggling” five pain management clinics throughout Indiana and Kentucky. The supply started to dry up as his doctors were being investigated by police. One was arrested and another committed suicide after being questioned by federal investigators, he said. A third, Dr. Tamal Kiwari, who operated the Pain Management Center of Southern Indiana with a location in New Albany, was recently indicted in federal court for allegedly defrauding Medicare by exchanging drugs for unnecessary surgical procedures.

In 2002, Tesch became so desperate he began hitching a ride on coal trucks from Hazard to London, Ky., and taking a Greyhound bus to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, about 2,600 miles round trip. In Mexico, he would buy about 3,000 pills for cheap. He said he was never questioned as border patrol agents were more interested in trying to find illegal immigrants.

He would make that trip a couple of times a month for two years until a minor car wreck in Hazard. A local narcotics investigator was the first to arrive at the scene, looked at his driver’s license and said, “Oh you’re the guy.”

When Tesch asked what he meant, he said, “You’re the guy who’s going down to Mexico to buy OxyContin.”

Tesch was not arrested but never made another trip to Mexico.

Tesch was also printing cashier’s checks to support his addiction and bringing in enough money to live well, but it was a personal terror. He sometimes would sell his extra pills and then have to buy them back at a higher price because he worried about not having enough.

“The withdrawals were so bad. I was always so scared of waking up without any pills the next day,” he said.

Tesch and his wife were eventually busted in 2004. Facing 22 charges in Meade County, Ky., he reached a plea agreement and went to prison until 2007.

On Dec. 19, 2007, he told a friend he was going to get money to buy drugs. He walked into the Motel 6 in Georgetown and pointed a finger in his shirt as if he was holding a gun. He left with $146.

Love for law realized in prison

After being sentenced to the maximum of eight years for robbery, Tesch ended up in the Henryville Correctional Facility.

While in prison, Tesch was spending as many as four hours a day on LexisNexis, a computer program that allows subscribers to do legal research. He began searching case law to help other inmates write petitions for sentence modification. He said some of those he helped were released from prison early.

He said his newfound interest and the support of the staff at the prison helped him transform his life. Local attorney William Gray also took an interest in Tesch buying him a computer and helping him get started.

“When I see someone working hard to turn their life around, I like to give a little push because we all benefit,” Gray said.

Tesch is now enrolled to begin studying paralegal at the University of Louisville next semester. He even helps out a couple of attorneys now with legal research.

Difficult road for former inmates

There are numerous challenges facing former inmates as they try to re-enter into society.

“You come out with no family, no money and a felony which doesn’t help to get a job,” said Darwin Groves, administrative assistant at Henryville

That is one reason the prison pays membership fees to Toastmasters, a national program to improve public speaking. Substance abuse counselor Anne Terwilliger said it gives inmates confidence, helps with networking and provides them the skills to answer the tough questions employers may ask about their felony record.

She will also provide a personalized letter with information about programs they have completed and how the company can receive tax credits for hiring a convicted felon.

Program seeks to offer solution

Shortly before his release from prison, Tesch was selected for a federally funded program that aims to answer the questions: How much money does it cost for an offender to successfully re-enter society, and how much money could it save if those people do not end up back in the legal system?

It is called the Community Enhancement and Reentry, or CARE, Project. Centerstone, which offers mental health and addiction services, received a federal $1.2 million grant in October 2009 for the three-year project. The program is available through Centerstone in only six Indiana counties, including Harrison where Tesch had been living. Other organizations throughout the country are also participating.

Leatha Jackson, re-entry coach for Centerstone, said their main focus is rehabilitation, but they also understand people have other needs including housing and medical and dental care.

Each participant is allotted $1,200 and is part of the program for one year. The funds are used for housing, food, transportation and medical and dental bills. Landlords and medical providers are paid directly.

Anything above and beyond that amount can be raised through other community programs. For example, one person needed surgery and was able to have the operation and therapy for free.

Participants are given drug tests and are monitored throughout the process. Jackson said they undergo a three-hour evaluation before being admitted into the program to ensure they will benefit and understand the responsibility.

Researchers in Bloomington are reviewing the data. At the end of 2012 when the project is finished, the federal government will decide if it is worth extending and expanding the program.

Jackson said the first group of about 80 to go through the program just recently graduated, and most are in school or working now. Tesch is part of the second group, which includes about 130 people.

Jackson said the results so far have been positive and the program a success.

“It’s been very encouraging,” Jackson said. “I love what I do.”

She said it’s the norm for people to leave prison with little support, so they work with families and community corrections and parole officers to provide “wrap-around” support. The goal is to give former inmates every opportunity to succeed.

Tesch believes the support has been the difference for him this time. He knows it will likely come down to crunching the numbers.

“If they keep someone like me from going back to prison, then will it be cost-effective?” he said.

The transition is still not easy. He has recently been receiving messages from old high school friends, and it has been awkward not knowing how much they know about his past.

“I’m so embarrassed about my past, but now I’ve paid my debt to society,” Tesch said. “If they don’t want to accept me, that’s fine. If they want to be my friend, then I’ll be their friend.”

And for the first time, he is excited about what the future holds.

“I’m fascinated with law,” he said. “This life is a dream.”

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