Sinners and saints

In a corner office just outside the meeting room, Dusty Tate, a longtime parole and probation officer wearing hoop earrings and tattoos, reflected on the women who’ve gone on before Davis.

“Personally and professionally, it’s had such a large impact on my life, seeing these women come in broken and seeing their lives change,” Tate said.

Now stationed at ReMerge, Tate has vast experience as a corrections officer. She’s seen failure at its nadir, with women locked up for life.

“If you don’t want to be here, I will find someone else to take your place,” Tate sometimes tells those fighting against the program.

She waved her cellphone, saying she’s available to the women 24 hours a day. They call because they’re frustrated with life. They call because they’re tempted to use again. Mostly, they call with good news, Tate said. A new job. A story about their children. An achievement in school.

Indeed, their relationship with the parole officer is markedly different from what the women are used to when it comes to authorities. Most of the women don’t trust law enforcement, because their experiences have been negative, Tate said.

Working in prison and now in a program, Tate said it has been difficult to see the lack of adequate treatment for addiction. But she doesn’t lose hope for the criminal justice system, or the people caught up in it.

On the inside of her forearm a tattoo reads:

“Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.”

‘The story does go on’

The meeting room in ReMerge is lined with lockers, like a high school hallway. Women tape up photos of their children, family and friends. Davis doesn’t have any photos yet. She says she will soon. She smiles easily, and more often now.

The program is overwhelming, but worth it, she said. Davis isn’t scared of a relapse — the danger and the pain. She’s done that before. She’s scared to relapse — the consequences of losing her daughter.

But ReMerge has given her confidence, even if it’s the confidence that comes with a short-lived sobriety.

“I’m stronger than I thought I was,” Davis said.

Thirty days is a big milestone, said Woodland, the ReMerge director. But it’s a long journey for the women, wherever and however they end up.

“The story doesn’t end here,” she said. “It may go somewhere else, but the story does go on.”