Barkdull completed drug court, a diversion program for generally low-level drug offenders, in August 2006, after violating his probation on a previous drug conviction.

“This was a very hard program for me to complete,” Keith Barkdull writes in a letter published in The Herald Bulletin shortly after he completed drug court. “I came to the program after I violated probation, it was my last chance at freedom. I was first arrested when I was 15 years old for drugs and a gun charge. I am now 28 years old. I have been in the system for 13 years. This is my second week of freedom and I owe it all to the push that drug court and Judge David Hopper gave me.

“This program helps you change everything about your life,” he continues. “Many police officers and other people in the community thought I would never change and tell me they can’t believe it. I do know if Judge Fredrick Spencer would have sent me to prison instead of drug court I would have been released and went back to my same old lifestyle. In closing, the taxpayers paid more for me during my life of crime then they did in helping me change my life. If they would of had a program like this when I was 15, it might of not took me so long to change.”