Personal stories of those in the Berks criminal justice system

Yahoo

22-05-2025

They've struggled with addiction. They've struggled with abuse and trauma. They've struggled with mental health issues.
And those struggles have led to time behind bars.
This month the nonprofit organization Building Justice in Berks unveiled a study that illuminates the experiences of people detained in Berks County Jail and recommends a new vision for public safety.
The report draws from jail administrative data and countywide listening tours, which included conversations with more than 100 people with direct experience in the criminal justice system.
Many of those interviewed asserted that jail is too often used as the default tool — rather than as an expensive option of last resort — to address complex social issues such as poverty, homelessness, substance abuse and mental health. And they said there are far too few resources to provide more effective responses to those societal ills.
Three of the people interviewed for the study shared their stories with the Reading Eagle in hopes of effecting change and improving the outcomes of the county's criminal justice system.
Maya Missonis
Maya Missonis said she grew up in a loving and stable environment, with a father who taught at Albright College and a mother who stayed home to raise her children. She lived in a nice house in Wyomissing and earned good grades in school.
But things started to change when she met a boy her senior year who introduced her to a different lifestyle, one where drinking alcohol and smoking pot were considered normal. It was her first step down a dark path.
'I just wanted more and more and more,' the 35-year-old said. 'Despite this, I managed to graduate from high school and went on to Alvernia University to study early childhood education. But I continued to party so I dropped out because school had become an inconvenience to my addiction.'
Missonis eventually ended things with the boy who introduced her to drugs and moved back home with her parents. But then another boy came along who had a taste for more destructive substances like crack cocaine.
'I became infatuated with the drugs,' she said.
Not long after, Missonis became pregnant with her first child and was fired from her job at a senior care facility for stealing from residents to help pay for her habit.
'That was the first repercussion that I had for actions,' she said. 'I was put on probation since I had no other charges from my past.'
Maya Missonis during the Walk With Us study unveiling at the WCR Center for the arts in Reading on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
During that time on probation, her daughter was born. Her relationship came to an end soon after and she found herself back living with her parents.
'My life felt out of control, so I went back out to party,' she said. 'I started using and went on like that for several months, and then I was arrested on new charges for prostitution and drug possession. And each time I was incarcerated I was under the impression that my parents would just bail me out.'
But after the third arrest their patience had run out. Missonis served a six-month sentence, during which she was finally able to address her drug and alcohol use.
'I never took the time to understand my addiction,' she said. 'I never spoke to anyone about it. That first time I went to rehab I was more concerned about whether the facility had a pool than trying to understand recovery.'
Missonis stayed sober for the next three years mainly out of fear of having to spend more time in a jail cell. She would end up falling in love with a man and having a daughter with him, but later discovered he was abusing her first child.
'I was living in a nice house that my parents had bought me, I had a good job and I was doing everything right,' she said. 'And then just like that both of my kids were taken away from me. I never wanted to feel again so I started using.'
The next nine years were spent in and out of jail on drug charges.
'My heart was broken,' she said. 'I just continued to run the streets and my parole officer allowed me to because he, like everyone else in my life, no longer saw anything worth saving.'
Today, things are different.
Missonis said her last stint in jail changed things. She was arrested with a lot of the people she had been running the streets with and watched them go through withdrawal while behind bars.
'I promised right then that if I got out that I would never do drugs again,' she said.
Missonis was released in November and so far has lived up to her promise.
She is eight months sober and living at the YMCA in Reading and is in drug treatment court. Through treatment court she was referred to Connections Work where she applied for and was accepted into the R3 program, which offers people reentering the community from prison training in building trades. She completed the program this month.
Missonis said she is thriving. She is spending time with her children, she is an active member at Life Church in Reading and she is working to rebuild the trust of her family.
'I think it's huge to know that the same city that I ran the streets in also has so many wonderful organizations willing to help anyone with a background,' she said. 'With these programs, they are showing people that they are not broken.'
Missonis said she believes that if more funding were put into prevention and treatment programs it would have a major impact on the number of people in jail.
'We need more funding for these programs so that more people can have the same opportunity that I got,' she said. 'Everything has changed now that I have the confidence to face my addiction.
'I think that for too long the criminal justice system has been about punishing people rather than connecting them with programs that help deal with the root issues that cause addiction.'
Missonis said that if she would have been able to find an effective treatment program sooner, her life may have ended up differently.
'I think if I had been given the opportunity to get into a treatment program I might have stopped using long before I did,' she said. 'I never really had that example of what recovery could look like for me.
'It's so hard to get out of that life.'
Jose Arroyo
Drugs and crime are all Jose Arroyo ever knew. From the time he was a child, he was surrounded by them. Both of his parents were addicts, and he can still recall his dad giving him his first beer at just 8 years old.
At around 12 he started to drink and smoke weed with his friends.
Often, the substance abuse would lead to violence.
He remembers being as young as 4 or 5 and his dad coming home drunk and beating him. Those experiences left a deep and damaging impression.
'I was always so angry and, to me, that was normal because that was how my dad was,' he said. 'I wanted to get in trouble because I didn't want to go home. I know that sounds crazy, but jail became my second home and I loved it because I had friends there — they accepted me in a way that my family never did.'
Arroyo was 15 the first time he was detained for committing a crime. He would be in and out of juvenile detention facilities for stealing cars.
And just before he turned 18 he beat up another student at his high school, sending his victim to the hospital with injuries and him to Berks County Jail for the first time. He was there for a few months and within six months was back for stealing another car.
There would be other arrests that would put him behind bars over the next several decades, the most serious being an attempted murder charge that would later be dropped but still send him back to prison for a parole violation.
'I lost trust with my family, with my children, with my siblings,' the 53-year-old said. 'When I got out I was homeless and had to panhandle for money, but I didn't really care because I was addicted to drugs. I did a lot of damage to other people and to myself.'
It would take years for Arroyo to break the addiction and finally deal with its roots.
Jose Arroyo during the Walk With Us study unveiling at the WCR Center for the arts in Reading on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
He has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder as well as depression and anxiety. And he now realizes he would medicate himself with drugs to numb his symptoms.
'When I was diagnosed I started to see why I made the decisions I did my whole life,' he said. 'But back in the '90s when I first got into the system they didn't really screen for mental health issues the way they do now.
'Thankfully, that has gotten better. But I think if I knew then what I know now my life could have been better.'
Arroyo has been in and out of treatment for his mental health struggles. During the most recent stint he had a breakthrough as he learned more about the recovery program.
'Being in rehab for three months I became a role model,' he said. 'I talked to people who are thinking about leaving the program so they don't go back on the street and use. And a lot of people I spoke to have stayed and they have thanked me.'
Now 16 months sober, Arroyo has been trying to use his own struggles to help others.
'I kind of found something I was good at, and I realized how much people just want to be heard and understood,' he said. 'I think having someone to talk to who doesn't judge you for all the bad stuff you've done and can still see the good in you can make a big difference.'
Arroyo has been working on becoming financially stable.
Determined to turn his life around this time, Arroyo decided to enroll in the R3 program through Connections Work, which armed him with skills to help him land a good job.
Following his graduation from the program, the landlord at Goodnight Clubhouse in Reading, where he was living, offered him a position helping remodel the facility.
'I'm so proud of that because I never accomplished anything in my life,' he said. 'I would start things and never finish. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me.'
Darnell Coad
When Darnell Coad started getting involved in the drugs and crime found so easily in his Reading neighborhood as a teenager, there was no one around to tell him not to.
His parents never took an interest in raising him, he said, leaving him pretty much to his own devices.
'I had no guidance at home,' he said. 'There was no one there to tell me I was doing the wrong thing. I was the oldest of five kids, so I had to fend for myself because my parents kind of checked out.'
The 49-year-old said he learned over time that there was no one at home to help show him how to be a young man, so he looked to the streets and found guys who made doing bad things seem cool.
Coad was 14 when he was sent to a juvenile detention facility for stealing a car. A few years later he committed a robbery that landed him more time behind bars.
Despite the time away, he said he managed to graduate from high school in 1994 but was sentenced to county jail shortly after for committing another robbery.
'My addiction was to committing crime,' he said. 'I got a high off of doing things that I knew would get me in trouble if I was caught. I honestly thought jail would make me seem tough and make the women want me.'
Coad said he has been in and out of prison ever since.
'I think the longest I was out was less than two years,' he said. 'It just became normal for me to be locked up.'
A few years ago, he said, he came to his senses. Some of his nine children were starting to follow down the same path he was on, and he realized that he didn't have the moral authority to tell them to stop.
Darnelle Coad during the Walk With Us study unveiling at the WCR Center for the arts in Reading on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
'That's when I said, 'Enough is enough — I have to change,'' he said. 'I knew I had to figure out a way to do something different with my life.'
Wanting to change, however, is just half the battle. Coad said finding employment with his extensive criminal background has proved to be difficult.
While he was grateful for the management team at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Reading giving him his first job following his release, he said he needed more hours than were available to pay his bills.
Coad said he applied to dozens of postings, eventually landing at Reading Truck.
'I think people in the system need more opportunities,' he said. 'They release you from jail and you end up back on the street. When you have nothing set up before you leave it's really easy to go back to what got you in there to begin with.'
Coad said it would be helpful if inmates had access to caseworkers as their release date approaches to provide guidance on things like which companies are likely to provide second chance employment, what the public transportation options are and where to go for housing assistance.
'I understand we are the ones who put ourselves in that position,' he said. 'But if we could get more help before we get out there would be a lot less going back.'
In addition to his job at Reading Truck, Coad has started a business with one of his sons providing basketball training to young people.
Coad said he's trying to make sure his students make different choices than him. He wants to serve as a role model and is determined to be there for them because he knows there are kids who are missing that oversight.
'I'm not just trying to teach the fundamentals of basketball — I'm trying to teach them the fundamentals of life,' he said. 'I tell them my story so that they understand the consequences of their choices. We are showing them that there's another way.'