2. and Parole Division.
“The clientele here are on
probation or parole. They are
supervised in the community,
but they are not in prison, not
locked down, not serving a
sentence,” said Mike Estrada,
the community corrections
administrator for probation and
parole.
Estrada explains that proba-
tion is supervision instead of
incarceration, and parole is
supervision after prison.
“This is a therapeutic com-
munity,” Estrada said.
During their first three
months in the program, par-
ticipants stay on the campus,
Estrada said, so they can focus
on the program.
As they progress, the men
go out in the community to
do shopping, see doctors, visit
their families if they are near
by and look for a job.
They also do community
service projects. The men from
the NMMRA helped with the
restoration of the San Antonio
Catholic Church in Los Lentes.
The NMMRA’s “other half”
— the New Mexico Women’s
Recovery Academy — was
housed at the state campus
from 2006 to 2009. That pro-
gram moved to Albuquerque
and the men’s academy came
in from Ft. Stanton.
They are the only two pro-
grams of their kind in the state.
“We are one of the best kept
secrets,” said Debra Mobley-
Sadler, the director of the men’s
and women’s programs.
The wry twist of her lips tells
you she wishes the programs
weren’t quite so well hidden.
Because the whole focus of
the academy’s program is to
help men and women reinte-
grate with their communities
and reconnect with their fami-
lies, the programs hold family
days every month.
And this month’s family
day, last Friday afternoon, was
especially significant, coming
just before Christmas.
The day started with a wel-
come to the families, thanking
them for their support.
“Your support shows there
is a place to return. A place of
friendship and compassion,”
Estrada said. “We are very
grateful for the support you’ve
shown to these families and the
greater community.”
Then it was time for fun.
In the weeks leading up to
the holiday celebration, a mas-
sive “Family Feud” set had
been built using the best qual-
ity paper and cardboard money
could buy. That it was a long
way from the actual $1.2 mil-
lion set didn’t seem to phase
the families.
Kids young and old decorat-
ed sugar cookies with too much
icing and red, white and green
sprinkles. Santa Claus made an
appearance for a photo-op by
the Christmas tree with all who
were willing, while the joyous
laughter rang out.
There was also a lot of hugs,
understanding nods, awkward
pats on the back and some
tears.
It was a day for the men in
the program to remember what
they were all fighting to get
back.
‘The clean way is the
best way — the only way’
Edward Torres has been
clean for two years. But after
he went back to prison on a
parole violation, he knew he
had to take some proactive
steps.
“When I was getting ready to
get out, I told my parole offi-
cer I wanted to get some help
before I was out on the streets,”
Torres said.
Torres, from Mountainair,
says of all the courses and
classes he has taken in his
three months in the program,
the victim impact was the
toughest.
“It’s tough. It makes you look
at a lot of things,” he said.
Another client passing in the
hallway agrees.
“You look at pictures of
people, children who have been
abused. People who have been
bitten even,” the man says.
And the looking is internal as
well, Torres says.
“You realize you did all that,
everything,” he said. “This is
about getting back to family.
The clean way is the best way,
the only way.”
Manuel Lopez, from Belen,
said he entered the NMMRA
to further his recovery and
“learn how to live a sober and
healthy life.” Lopez said he
is getting help with his use of
alcohol.
“There are a lot of things that
go with recovery,” Lopez said.
In the program, the men are
given a full gamut of skills to
help them cope with the pres-
sures that might cause them to
return to bad behaviors, but it
also gives them basic life skills.
Along with anger manage-
ment, Lopez has taken cook-
ing courses through the local
extension service’s ICAN pro-
gram, earned a food handlers
certificate and gotten creative
with the academy’s arts and
crafts opportunities.
The crafts made by the men
at the academy are sold at
the Peralta Memorial United
Methodist Church and profits
are used to buy more materials.
Both men say the staff at the
NMMRA are supportive and
always available to talk.
“They will always talk to you
and give really good advice,”
Lopez said.
Although it’s tough being
away from their families,
Torres and Lopez also agree
that the alternative is worse.
“It’s better than jail,” Torres
says. “It works if you want it
to.”
And while they can’t see
most of their family right now,
they still have each other —
Torres and Lopez are cousins.
After he completes the pro-
gram, Lopez says he plans to
take care of his two grandfa-
thers and his father.
“I’ll finally be off probation,”
says the 25 year old. “I’m going
to make this the last time. I’ve
been on probation since high
school.”
At 41, Torres says recovery
actually gets a little easier as
you get older.
“You realize you just can’t do
this stuff anymore. I’ve done
some stupid stuff,” he said.
“I’ve got my higher power now
— Jesus Christ — so I just get
in touch with that and work my
program.”
‘It’s like a razor blade
tearing right through’
At 19, Dylan DelCampo, of
Albuquerque, says he is happy
he was “caught young” and still
has a chance to do something
positive with his life.
His parents died when he
was young — his mother died
when he was 13, succumbing
to her own addictions when she
mixed alcohol and Xanax, and
four years later, DelCampo lost
his father to cancer.
During the last several
months of his father’s life,
DelCampo was his primary
caregiver.
“I started skipping school
and forging his signature on
the slips,” DelCampo said. “I
basically dropped out of school
to take him to the hospital,
his doctors appointments. He
couldn’t do it.”
After his father’s death, the
teenager came to New Mexico,
leaving the ocean of West Palm
Beach, Fla., behind to stay with
his aunt.
He used heroin for about a
year, then switched to meth
when he came out of the closet.
Caught writing bad checks,
DelCampo faced forgery and
fraud charges. He was given
probation.
DelCampo violated the terms
of his probation — seven times.
Looking at one last chance
to avoid incarceration, he was
offered the chance to go to
NMMRA. The judge gave him
a suspended sentence on the
fraud charges, and dropped the
felony forgery charges.
If DelCampo completes the
academy’s program success-
fully, the misdemeanor fraud
charges will be taken off his
record.
He has 3 1/2 months of pro-
bation left and a very clear
plan for his future. He is just
four credits away from getting
his high school diploma from
Gordon Bernell Charter School
in Albuquerque. Then he plans
to enroll in CNM’s culinary
arts program.
“I am very determined with
my education,” DelCampo said.
While at the NMMRA, he
works in the kitchen serving
and cooking, and has earned
his food handlers’ certificate.
In addition to working
towards a viable career,
DelCampo is also learning to
control his anger.
“I lash out at people. Some
people will antagonize me
about my sexual orienta-
tion and I will just lash out at
them,” he said. “I’m trying to
learn to control that.”
The victim impact class has
also given DelCampo a lot of
insight into himself and his
behavior.
“It opened up a lot of wounds
I thought were healed a long
time ago,” he said. “It’s like
a razor blade tearing right
through.”
With much of his immediate
family gone, he is working to
rebuild his relationship with
his older brother who is in the
Marine Corps.
“I haven’t spoken to him in
about a year,” he said. “I’m
starting to rebuild that relation-
ship, so that’s good.”
‘It’s time for me
to be a parent’
Jayden Martin wants to touch
the ceiling. The 2 year old
sports a sticker of Lightening
McQueen on his red turtleneck.
He squirms in his father’s arms
stretching his small hands
towards the white, textured
ceiling.
Landon Martin lifts him
high. Contact is made, squeals
and giggles commence. Jayden
races off to join his grand-
parents and mother, who are
locked in fierce competition for
a canister of gourmet popcorn
if they are crowned “Family
Feud” champions.
At 32, Martin is at the acad-
emy for the second time. He
began in February the first
time, and by June was regularly
leaving the campus for medical
treatments.
“I messed up,” Martin
admits. “I didn’t remember
my plan and I was around the
wrong people.”
A recovering heroin addict,
Martin says he walked in on
someone getting high in a bath-
room.
“Then I was high and regret-
ting it,” he says.
Landon told his parole officer
immediately, and got back in
the program in October. The
Los Lunas resident is now
being prescribed Suboxone,
a medication which, he says,
helps with the withdrawal from
and cravings for heroin.
“This is all about being with
my family, my boys,” Martin
says. “I see what’s important,
how my family and kids lost
respect for me, how I hurt my
girl.”
Much of that realization came
from a victims impact class
that all clients take. In it, they
are shown the “ripple effect” of
their actions and decisions.
“My kids had me taken away
from them,” he said.
Martin says for everyone
in the program, “Family is so
important at this time in our
lives.”
He calls the academy a “safe
place” and an “opportunity.”
“It just sucks you have to go
to jail to get here,” Martin says.
Once he completes the pro-
gram, Martin plans to start
making a life with his two
boys, Jayden and Tyler, 11, and
their mother, Amber.
During his time at the
NMMRA, Martin has taken
courses in anger management
and parenting.
“It’s time for me to be a par-
ent. Before, I was a father, but
now it’s time to be a parent,”
he said.
Tyler says he has seen his
father change — change for the
better.
“He’s not the same person,”
Tyler said.
When he was using, Tyler
remembers his father being
gone for days.
“I didn’t know where he
was, if he was coming back,”
he said. Tyler pauses, looking
down. “If he loved me any-
more.”
Martin sits on the floor with
Jayden, playing with stick-
ers, his own head down as his
parents, aunt and Amber talk
about his addiction and recov-
ery.
“It was hell,” his aunt,
Roxanne Robustelle, says
bluntly.
Martin’s father, Johnny
Buffalow, says there needs to
be more programs like this,
programs that don’t rely on the
prison system.
“There aren’t enough. Not
nearly enough,” Buffalow says.
Loretta Buffalow, Martin’s
mother, says as he has begun
recovery, instead of daily fights
with her son, she sees there has
been something “embedded” in
his mind.
“He understands he can’t just
walk away,” Loretta said.
Amber, who has been with
Martin for 15 years, knows
both sides of the journey he is
taking. She has been clean for
three years.
“It’s been rough,” Amber
says, in perhaps what can be
considered a huge understate-
ment. “It’s been hard, espe-
cially with him using and me
clean.”
“She knows what we experi-
enced,” Loretta said.
And even with all they’ve
experienced, they are still fam-
ily with the usual jokes and
good-natured ribbing as they
prepare for a picture by the
tree.
As the holiday celebration
winds down, families begin
to depart. Jayden inspects the
faux Christmas presents under
the tree one more time, clad in
his sock-monkey hat.
“It’s time for you guys to
go,” Martin says to Jayden, his
voice breaking. “Come give
Daddy a hug.”
LOCAL December 26, 2012 7AValencia County News-Bulletin
Recovery: Therapeutic
from PAGE 1A
Julia M. Dendinger-News-Bulletin photo
JAYDEN MARTIN, 2, takes a peak at what’s under the tree while
his dad, Landon, keeps a watchful eye at the New Mexico Men’s
Recovery Academy’s family services program holiday celebration.
Landon, a Los Lunas resident, is in the program to help him recov-
er from his heroin addiction.
auditor to prepare its financial statements, and when they are
completed, the auditor spends about two weeks with the finan-
cial department staff who provide all the vouchers, payroll files
and receipts to verify the financial information.
The district was gigged with only two minor findings.
“You can have material weakness, you can have signifi-
cant deficiency, and you can have other matters,” Griego said.
“These are other matters, so they are very minor. I call them
strike ones.”
There are always findings in an audit, he said, no audit has
zero findings.
One of the findings was an error on a function category, and
the other finding involved timeliness of deposits.
“It’s a minor item that comes up quite often (in school
audits),” Griego said.
When money is received by a school on a Friday, it can be
challenging to get the money deposited within 24 hours.
All the district schools’ secretaries receive annual training
emphasizing the importance of making deposits within 24
hours, said Cieremans.
The total budget for the district is a little more than $100 mil-
lion, and expenditures were almost $92 million, she said.
A copy of the 2011-12 audit will be available to the public on
the district’s website at www.llschools.net.
Audit: On district website
from PAGE 1A
“I didn’t know where he was, if he was
coming back. If he loved me anymore.”
TYLER MARTIN
Son
“You realize you just can’t do this stuff any-
more. I’ve done some stupid stuff.”
EDWARD TORRES
New Mexico Men’s Recovery Academy client
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