MUSKEGON, Mich. – In August 2006, Rachael Torrey was given a last chance at life.

She was sentenced to three months at the Michigan Department of Corrections’ Special Alternative Incarceration (S.A.I.) Women’s Boot Camp.

“I should have been dead,” she said. “Boot camp saved my life.”

Addicted to crack, Torrey, 29, had been arrested previously for possession of cocaine and on charges of solicitation and prostitution. She’d violated probation – and was picked up a second time on prostitution charges.

But at the request of Muskegon County Assistant Prosecutor Marc Curtis, Torrey was given boot camp instead of prison. And that, she said, has led her to get sober, lose weight and start thinking seriously about her future.

“I’d always quit everything I’d ever tried before,” she said, “but for some reason, I didn’t want to quit this.”

Curtis recommended Torrey for boot camp after meeting her in a project that partners the prosecutor’s office with the Muskegon Heights Police Department. In one of his first trips into a targeted neighborhood, Curtis rounded up Torrey and five other prostitutes who were “regulars.”

“You could just tell Rachael was the type of person who didn’t want to be out there on the streets,” Curtis said.

Torrey, who’d lost her daughter and a marriage because of her addiction, knew she’d reached the end of a long road of self-destruction.

“I was always extreme in my behavior,” she said. “I started with alcohol, then marijuana, then cocaine and finally crack (cocaine) … anything to numb me.”

When she was 21, Torrey unexpectedly got pregnant. She and the baby’s father married in 1999 out of a sense of duty, but Torrey admits she shrugged off her parental responsibility as soon as the baby was born. She returned to the party scene almost immediately.

After a few years, she and her husband divorced. As Torrey’s behavior became more risky, her ex-husband petitioned for custody of their daughter and won. In the meantime, Torrey said she just “disappeared … I wanted to be alone.” By 2004, Torrey said she was introduced to and immediately addicted to crack cocaine.

“It made me happy, and that’s all I cared about,” she said.

But in 2006, she was far from happy. She was desperate. She was sick, and she knew she was going to end up in prison unless she got her act together.

And so, for the first time since she was a teenager, she was energized by the discipline and physical demands of the camp.

“I started to have this drive. I felt so good all the time. … I got a high from that,” she said. “I got the endorphins going. Man, I was so happy. I felt alive again.”

When Torrey was hooked on alcohol and marijuana, she weighed in at 214 pounds – an excessive amount of weight to carry on her 5-foot-4-inch frame. When she got hooked on crack – “I liked it because I wasn’t hungry,” she said – she started losing some weight.

But under the influence of her camp instructors, Torrey dropped to 140 pounds.

Meanwhile, Torrey enrolled at Baker College in Muskegon to pursue a business degree. She dreams of starting her own business she’s named “Serenity I” as an independent motivational counselor for women wanting to live healthy lives.

She continues the discipline and exercise learned in boot camp, working out every day without fail. Her regimen includes walking one to three miles daily, as well as engaging in intense aerobics. She regularly attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings, goes to counseling and is active in her church.

In the meantime, Torrey is beginning to repair the relationship with her daughter. Because of Torrey’s record, her visits are still supervised. She is living with her parents in the Muskegon area until she gets on her feet financially.

“I’m doing things different this time because I know it’s my last chance,” she said. “I am scared of what could cause a relapse. I mean, drugs are right there everywhere. It sucks, really.”

CM END HARRISON

(Susan Harrison Wolffis is a reporter for the Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle. She can be contacted at susanharrison(at)muskegonchronicle.com.)

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