Leap of Faith Shows Signs of Success for Pasco Inmates

Before he went to jail, he didn’t know how to talk to God.

That’s what one inmate at the Land O’ Lakes jail told his group during a Monday session of Celebrate Recovery, a Bible-based support program “for any hurt, habit or hang up.”   

The program was implemented at the Land O’ Lakes jail in January. Meetings open with a prayer and upbeat, jubilant hymns.

“I never thought they’d care enough,” Joseph Churchville, 43, said.  The program is available “not only here but when we leave here.”

March 25 will mark three years of sobriety for Churchville, he said.

Another inmate submitted a service request, marked “other.”  It was a message to the sheriff:

I want to thank you for instituting the Celebrate recovery program in Delta and Echo pods. I have been clean and sober for over one year thanks to a faith-based program. I pray that it would be made available to the other pods and possibly twice a week. Thank you again.

“We’re seeing a lot of success with our male inmates,” Nocco said.  Female chaplains will begin counseling female inmates in April, he said.

There are 10 volunteers in the jail program now, but they need about 25.  And the sheriff’s office is hoping more churches will offer the program to help people on the outside—former inmates and others suffering from addiction, “so they can get help from Celebrate Recovery before they commit a crime,” Nocco said.

“Working with our churches is important,” Sheriff Chris Nocco said.  Addiction “is not just a Pasco Sheriff Department issue, it’s a community issue.”

When inmates are released, they live all over the county, so it is important to have churches connected throughout Pasco, Nocco said.

“The more churches that are involved, the better it will be for all of us, “ he said.

Hope lost—and found?

 “I struggled with alcohol all my life,” inmate Kenneth Yovanovits said during an interview.

Yovanovits was never really the type to go out to bars, he said. But he often drank at home. 

Then a divorce in 1989—“the drinking had something to do with it”— sent him on a downward spiral.  He lost his job of 17 years, then eventually lost his home, he said.

“I succumbed to alcoholism again,” he said. “And I’ve been on and off ever since.”

Yovanovits was arrested and charged with DUI and refusal to take a breath test in September 2011.  He is now serving a two-year sentence: one year per charge.

“It’s a long story of disappointment,” Yovanovits said. He went out to run an errand after he’d been drinking at home.

“Something told me I should wait, but unfortunately I didn’t listen to that person inside,” Yovanovits said.

He’s hoping that the Celebrate Recovery program will help him write a new, healthier chapter when he is released.  

The element of faith makes it different from AA meetings he has attended in the past, Yovanovits said.

“It’s Bible based,” Yovanovits said. “When people are at their wits end not being able to recover on their own, they need to see the light.”

Yovanovits has attended about 10 meetings so far, he said.

“I like it. I would really like to see some speakers come in between meetings” to talk with the inmates, he said.

Nocco said Celebrate Recovery is not meant to replace programs such as AA; instead it simply adds another layer of resources for a recovering addict.

“The more layers, the more successful you are going to be,” Nocco said.

Nocco spoke briefly to the men during the session, and the men had a few words for him, as well.

“God bless you, sheriff.”  

If you would like more information about volunteering, or if your church would like to get involved, contact the sheriff's office at 727-844-7711.