CONWAY — Lee Saffel of Conway said he jogs every day, drives to his job at a heating-and-air company and goes to church twice a week.
The convicted felon said he’s determined to change his life.
Saffel, 33, is one of 87 residents in the Phoenix Recovery Center in Conway. It’s for men with substance-abuse problems, but the vast majority are parolees, its director said.
“I pray for them; I’m grateful for them giving me an opportunity,” Saffel said of the center’s staff. “Otherwise, I’d been out on the streets.”
Originally from Texarkana, Arkansas, he first went to prison in July 2006. He said he was already on probation for drug charges and theft by receiving; then he was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.
Saffel said he made good grades in high school, played football and earned honors in discus-throwing in 2000.
When his girlfriend became pregnant, “I started bucking — didn’t want to conform,” he said, talking in a slow and easy manner.
“When we split up, I just started messing with [drugs]; it was a snowball effect,” he said. “People I started hanging around were more of a party scene. I can still remember a lot of times of being around friends and hanging out, and what we were doing, but drugs were always a part of it.”
Saffel violated his probation more than once, and in 2007, he went to a boot camp in Little Rock for nonviolent offenders. It was a 105-day program.
“All day, every day, book work, exercises, just learning discipline, basically restructuring my mindset,” he said. “The only difference in there from the real military and what we went through is they can’t put their hands on you in there — physically, push you around.”
He said the drill instructor would wake them up by yelling, or one day it was by banging trash cans.
Saffel took classes at boot camp on topics suchas anger management and substance abuse.
“I listened,” he said. “This time, it’s different. I have no desire, no want, no need to use alcohol or drugs. My rock bottom was this last time I got incarcerated, this past three, four years. It’s taken till this last time to lock down and do the right thing. I made that decision that I was going to change my life this time.”
He came to the Phoenix Recovery Center in October, he said, the first time he’s been in transitional housing. He has stayed past the required 60 days.
He isn’t married, but he has a 14-year-old son in Texas, and Saffel said he realizes the damage he did to his family by using drugs and alcohol.
“I started seeing that distance that was established in my relationships from that time period. I didn’t want to work; I didn’t want to have a vehicle. My son was in Dallas, so I couldn’t go see him,” Saffel said. He also got behind on child support.
He and his son talk on the phone some, text, and Saffel tries to meet him halfway for a weekend visit.
“I wish I was able to be there for him and be more of an example than what he’s heard about me. I love him to death,” Saffel said.
“As soon as I got out, I signed up with Labor Finders and walked up there every day,” he said, referring to the employment service on Oak Street.
He got a job at Freyaldenhoven Heating and Cooling in Conway in January and paid enough of his past fines so that he could get a driver’s license. He said his supervisors know his story.
“I went ahead and put it all on the table,” Saffel said.
He does mechanical work and tries to save money, but he said most of it continues to go to paying off fines.
“My short-term goal is to get out on my own and get a place — I don’t know whether a house or apartment — and move up at work. I might be able to go out on my own this summer,” he said. “And I’m looking for a relationship with a woman. What always got me in trouble was my friends.”
Katherine Daves, assistant director of the Phoenix Recovery Center, said men from all walks of life come through the program, which requires drug-testing and enforces
a curfew.
Saffel said he has had three or four roommates in his time at the Phoenix Recovery Center.
“When people slip up around here, … they send them packing pretty quick,” Saffel said. “There’s not anything being — what’s the word? — condoned.
“The staff here is doing the best they can to help out and provide service for the people, the state, to actually help the community. They’re doing the best they can to get rid of any nuisance here before it spills out in the community. I think they’re doing a good job.”
Daves said the men who make the decision to live in the transitional housing are trying to improve their lives.
“This population, they have actually surprised me. They’ve made mistakes, but they’re wanting to work, to get back into the community,” she said.
“When you actually get to know these people, you wouldn’t know they were felons,” Daves said. “They’re just normal people. I think if more people got to know our guys and heard their stories, they’d be amazed.”
Saffel said he is enjoying being out of prison.
“There’s a lot nicer people out here. It’s more beautiful,” he said. “You get to enjoy the days.”
He stood by his truck, a 1996 Ford F-150 that he said was a gift from his parents and his grandfather for his birthday in February.
“I’m making amends to my family,” he said. “They can see I’m genuinely doing the right thing.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.