Huckleberries gone wireless: Mother knows about recovery, second chances

Kendra Goodrick-Martinez, the former drug addict who turned her life around only to be imprisoned again, talks to Huckleberries Gone Wireless today. You can read the complete interview this morning at D.F. Oliveria’s Huckleberries Online blog.

DFO: The last time I saw you, you were being hauled away from court in handcuffs while your baby cried. What was that experience like?

Kendra Goodrick-Martinez: Nothing could have prepared me for being away from my newborn son. That first week was a nightmare.

DFO: Were there any silver linings to this last incarceration episode?

KGM: Absolutely. The response from the community has been overwhelming.

DFO: Can you say for sure that you’ll never use drugs again?

KGM: I doubt that I’d slip into relapse because it’s a process, not an event, and I will be able to see (slipping back) coming a long way off.

DFO: When did your addiction to hard drugs start?

KGM: I joined the Army when I was 19 and seeking direction in life. I signed on as a combat medic. After going to advanced training in Texas, I graduated at the top of my class and was allowed to choose a secondary occupational specialty. I chose veterinary medicine. I worked at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (in Maryland), the same facility where they developed the anthrax vaccine.

DFO: Why did you leave the service?

KGM: After a surgery (during my third year of enlistment), I became addicted to prescription drugs and panicked and went AWOL when my commander decided to put me in treatment. After a year on the run, I was arrested and wound up at Fort Sill, Okla., pursuing a legal case for general discharge under honorable conditions. I received one.

DFO: Let’s play the Huckleberries Gone Wireless word association game:

KGM: (Prosecutor Bill Douglas) politics, (Judge John Mitchell) treatment, (Chief Deputy Prosecutor Marty Raap) I don’t want to say power monger, but that’s the first thing that popped into my head, (defense attorney Val Siegel) earnest.

DFO: Do you think it’s hypocritical for Prosecutor Douglas to encourage strong sentencing for you while his wife was critical of her son Jeremy’s sentencing this week?

KGM: There’s always going to be a certain amount of hypocrisy when it comes to a parent. I don’t think Mrs. Douglas made any public statements about my case. I can understand her inclination to not want her son to have his probation violated. I can say from … being incarcerated … and watching people jailed on probation violations that he was that lucky he didn’t have his whole probation violated and switched to a felony.

DFO: What would you like to see your baby son become?

KGM: Whatever he wants to be. I just want to provide the support, encouragement and love in a clean, Christian household to facilitate that.

DFO: What’s happened since your release?

KGM: On Aug. 28, my 30th birthday, the owner of Namaste Foods offered me a position at a decent salary. It’s a godsend because it allows me to work from home, where I can be with my son.

DFO: What are you going to be now that you’re growing up?

KGM: I’d like to get my bachelor degree in education. I feel reaching today’s youth is key. I would like to assist troubled teens in getting their GEDs or high school diplomas, either at an alternative school or juvenile detention program. I tutored women in the GED building in (prison).

DFO: If a movie was made of your life, who would play Kendra?

KGM: Drew Barrymore. She could draw on her own experiences.