Spotsylvania woman fighting for second chances for recovering addicts

When she was in the throes of drug addiction more than 20 years ago, Melissa Brown committed crimes, including robbery, and served eight years in prison.

Even though she's turned her life around — and is vice president of a company, a homeowner and voter, volunteer in her church and community — the 50-year-old grandmother is still paying for her past.

As a result, the Spotsylvania County woman is challenging the state's "barrier crime" law that prevents her from counseling substance abusers in state-regulated facilities.

She won the first round of the lawsuit last month. A federal judge in Alexandria denied the state's motion to dismiss Brown's constitutional challenge, noting her arguments that the law "as applied to her, may be irrational."

She hasn't used drugs or had any legal problems since her conviction 22 years ago. Why couldn't those who've committed certain barrier crime laws be screened after 10 years or so, she wondered, to determine if they've truly rehabilitated?

"I just want the opportunity for second chances to be a thing for people," she said, "because if you can't have second chances, if you can't be rehabilitated, then why are we releasing people back into the community and expecting them not to be a part of the recidivism problem?"

'100% served my time'

Brown doesn't deny her crimes or the consequences that followed. She went through some tumultuous times in her teens and early 20s, when she had two young children, was on the verge of divorce and had no marketable skills after dropping out of high school.

"I had developed a drug addiction to cocaine and pills and alcohol," she said. "It was kind of like a potluck thing back then."

The pot boiled over in the early 2000s when she committed theft, several times, to get money for more drugs. She was charged with robbery when she walked up to a woman coming out of a local grocery store and stole her purse. She proceeded to the woman's bank, withdrew money and got high.

Because she had violated her parole on another offense, Brown was sentenced to 10 years in jail and served more than eight.

Brown had checked herself into recovery after the purse incident, and was in rehab when she called police to confess the crime. She was allowed to finish the program before her court proceedings, and she was 27 when she went to jail.

"I 100% know there are consequences to all the things that I did," she said. "But I do feel like I've 100% served my time, 100% given back as much as I can to my work, volunteer work, at my church, all of those things."

Barrier crimes

While incarcerated, Brown helped other inmates earn their GEDs and she worked on college courses. After release, she got a psychology degree from the University of Mary Washington and became a state-certified substance abuse counselor.

Brown said she disclosed her criminal background with the state agency granting the certification, but nothing was mentioned about her robbery conviction being one of Virginia's 176 barrier crimes.

The laws mainly prohibit those licensed by the Department of Health, Department of Social Services and Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services from hiring people with certain criminal histories.

The idea is to protect the vulnerable. That's why most states and the federal government have laws that prohibit sex offenders from working with children.

"But there's broad consensus, including among the agencies affected, that Virginia goes above and beyond in the length and restrictiveness of its barrier crimes laws," wrote the Virginia Mercury, an independent news organization that covers state government, in September 2021.

Convictions that disqualify an applicant — forever — from working in behavioral health include the most serious charges such as murder and rape, but also ones such as pointing a laser pointer at a law enforcement officer or setting a field on fire.

'Who doesn't' have a past?

After she earned her state certification, Brown started working at a drug rehabilitation program in Fredericksburg and got promoted to lead counselor.

"I had never had a profession before in my life, and I worked my butt off," Brown said. "You're told in recovery to put your all into everything and be honest and that's what I was trying to do."

When her boss told her in 2018 that she couldn't continue counseling because of the barrier crime law, she was shocked. She was able to continue with the company by switching to the marketing department, after confirming with the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services that she could legally do that.

As long as she's at least two levels removed from direct care, she's allowed to keep the job.

The department is the same agency defending the barrier crime law in Brown's lawsuit.

Brown has been vice president of marketing and operations for Mainspring Recovery in Prince William County since September. When Yitzy Halon, co-founder and CEO, considered opening facilities in Virginia, he said "it became apparent, very early on, that Melissa Brown was an extremely important person to know and to talk to in the industry."

He was impressed with her professionalism and knowledge, experience and empathy, and her incredible network of people in the business.

"Before she came on board, she told me she had some things in her past and I said, who doesn't?" Halon said. "We're in the business of helping people who struggle with addiction, and we celebrate their successes."

'Just a rockstar'

Brown also volunteers at Zoe Freedom Center, a Christian-based recovery program in Fredericksburg that isn't regulated by the state because it's nonprofit.

Brown leads a women's group and does individual counseling, and "she's just a rockstar," said Dana Brown, the center's co-founder. (The women are not related.)

"Melissa is very straightforward, she's very blunt, she does not hide her history or her story, and that is super helpful with the women she meets," Dana Brown said. "They absolutely love her and trust her, they open up to her."

Banning her from working with others going through substance abuse doesn't protect the public, as the barrier crime laws were intended to do, said Mike Greenberg, an attorney with the Institute for Justice which is representing Melissa Brown in the lawsuit.

"It just deprives people battling addiction of a qualified counselor," he said.

'Second chances'

Dana Brown said the best way to offer hope to those experiencing addiction, and hopelessness, is for them to be able to look across the table and see someone who made it to the other side.

Melissa Brown hopes a successful outcome in court will allow her to be that person, in a state-regulated facility. And that her victory would set a precedent for others in similar situations because she regularly hears about recovering addicts who are turned away from jobs, in the facilities where she's worked, because of their barrier crimes.

"They can't work as a peer or as a counselor, so it's not only hurting the people who could use their services but it's also hurting our workforce," Brown said.

Brown also believes she's paid her dues after more than two decades of working hard and giving back — after taking too much from others in her younger years.

"I'm not saying I deserve it because I'm not sure 'deserve' is the right word," she said. "But what I will say is I think that there should be redemption in this world and I do think everybody should be given second chances. It is kind of my mantra."

Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425

Health, King George, features and is a local columnist