This time, Bess is serving time for theft and forging checks. He used that money for meth. Though the 22-year-old says he's been clean for more than a year, he's paying for the choices he made when he was high.
"The thought that I'm pretty sure every addict has is I can manage this," Bess said. "I know how to say no. I can manage it. I couldn't manage nothing, really. I couldn't manage myself."
A COMMON STORY
Bess' story of relapse seems to be one heard often in Elkhart County. Sheriff Mike Books estimates a 60 percent to 65 percent recidivism rate in the Elkhart County Jail. And about 75 percent of the 890-bed jail's inmates are there on drug-related crimes.
Mike Garty serves as program services director at Bashor Children's Home and teaches a substance abuse program at the jail.
The curriculum focuses on irrational thinking and introduces new ways of thinking and setting goals. Phase one lasts about a month, phase two consists of 48 hours of group therapy and phase three involves 24 hours in depth. The curriculum teaches inmates to examine their behavior, then teaches them to change that behavior to affect their rationale.
"The problem really across the board with the guys who have used meth, is they haven't just used it," Garty said. "They've cooked it, and that affects more than just them."
Of the 25 to 30 men he's helped through substance abuse treatment at the jail this year, only three have been first-time offenders.
Garty has to help these inmates who chase the high find a reason to give it up.
"How do you get that same rush naturally that you're getting with that illegal substance? That's the problem because that's what they crave," he said.
That rush can last up to eight hours, releasing dopamine and giving users a feeling of pleasure. Repeated meth use can cause increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, rapid increases in temperature, hyperthermia, convulsions because of increased brain stimulation and deteriorated ulcers on skin from users scratching themselves until they bleed, said Ahmed Elkashef, chief of the clinical/medical branch in the Division of Pharmacotherapies and Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Users can get "meth mouth" where teeth fall out because of poor dental hygiene and a change in pH levels in the mouth. They can develop meth psychosis, where they experience delusions similar to schizophrenia.
"When the patients reach this stage, they are completely absorbed in how they can obtain their next dose," Elkashef said.
COURTROOMS SWAMPED
Meth cases continue to pour into Elkhart County courtrooms.
On a recent Thursday, Elkhart County Superior Court Judge George Biddlecome heard seven meth cases. The criminals he sees are the ones selling or making meth, and they go to prison.
About 20 percent of Oaklawn's 180 clients are being treated for meth addiction, according to Ken Norman, manager of addiction services.
A meth addict can spend up to seven months in treatment there, first with eight weeks of intensive outpatient treatment, then 16 weeks of aftercare where they meet once a week.
After treatment, counselors refer clients to Narcotics Anonymous and Celebrate Recovery meetings in Elkhart County.
In all, about five companies provide outpatient treatment in Elkhart County. Norman said 95 percent of meth addicts who go through treatment attend outpatient programs. Inpatient treatment would cost about $1,400 a day in a hospital setting.
"A lot of clients can't afford it and I don't know of any insurance companies that cover more than a day or two," Norman said.
The most successful treatment programs have proven to be those that combine behavioral interventions with medication, Elkashef said.
"Those programs come to an end at some point," Biddlecome said. "Even so, one hopes that people who go through intensive programs and then aftercare have gained the tools that they need to address the problem. But you can't keep them in treatment forever."
Meth addiction is not something to treat casually, but money needs to be available, he said.
"We need more police, we need more jail cells, we need more cops and judges and we need more treatment programs, both the intensive treatment programs and aftercare," Biddlecome said. "That's what we need, and we're not likely to get any of those, not until the economy improves."
Garty believes the in-jail treatment program is adequate.
ECONOMY MAKES SITUATION WORSE
"The concern is when they get out," he said. "There's (Narcotics Anonymous), there's (Alcoholics Anonymous), but as far as a community system to support them when they get out, it's lacking."
Many inmates owe back taxes. They won't have a job when they get out and won't have a way to pay their mortgages. They face the prospect of coming out of jail to a broken economy.
"All America is doing is pushing us back in to selling drugs," Bess said. "We're in the recession. You can cook meth and make $300 off of it and you have this drug addict over here selling food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar. So I'm going to buy the food stamps with the money I made from meth and that's how it goes around. That's called hustling."
Garty said, "It's very easy for these guys to lose hope. Staying out of jail, staying out of prison becomes a big obstacle for them."
Elkhart County has pockets of help in support groups and treatment programs, but no network or umbrella they're all gathered under, Garty said.
"They can have the greatest intentions of not using. They've seen the destruction it's caused to their family. ... But if they don't have a goal that they put a greater value on than the drug, they'll never leave it. Why would they?"
The sounds of dogs greeted visitors on an October afternoon as they entered Steve Garrett's home, but the laughter of children was absent. The Department of Child Services took his children as a result of his weekend meth habit last summer.
Garrett's 8-month-old son failed a hair test that screened for meth, even though Garrett had not smoked the drug in his home. The residue that stayed on Garrett's clothes after his weekend binges got into his son's system.
Now, he has to undergo six months of treatment in order to have them in the home again.
"My kids are more important to me than that drug is," he said.