Finding
Redemption
After drugs and prison,
CT man finds peace
with holistic remedies
\\ By Matt Pilon
F
or most, the thought of going to
prison is a nightmare.
For Connecticut native Kelvin
Young, a 26-month sentence was no
picnic, but he looks back on his time served as
divine intervention.
"It might sound kind of funny, but I was
relieved," Young said. "I was tired."
On May 5, 2009, the day before he went to
prison, Young said he was intoxicated and
used cocaine, heroin and klonopin.
It wasn't the first time he'd used. Young
began sniffing heroin and cocaine, drinking,
smoking marijuana and ingesting OxyContin
in the mid-1990s.
After a painful detox period, Young was
lying in his prison bunk thinking about life.
He didn't like who he'd become.
"I felt guilt, shame, remorse," he said of his jail
sentence, which was the result of him violating a
restraining order and being charged with third-
degree strangulation aer choking his girlfriend at
the time.
"My family brought me up much better than
that," he added.
He also thought about his daughter, who was 11
at the time.
"She's seen me in very, very negative places,"
said Young, who also sold drugs at one point. "I
wanted to be the man my daughter could look up
to and be proud of."
Middletown's Kelvin Young
with a mallet he uses to
perform "sound healing" or
sound therapy, a holistic
practice he learned about
in prison and has since used
to help others relieve stress
and cope with addiction.
16 GREATER HARTFORD HEALTH • Fall 2017
