my decision making went out the window, man. i walked away from family. i walked away from possibilities of greatness. my love for heroin has made this become my home. i live in jail and periodically visit the streets. i just about sold my soul to the devil when i started using heroin. reporter: in chicago, state-funded treatment on the outside has been slashed by more than a 50%. cuts that disproportionately affectlack users. for many of these men, this may be the only treatment they will ever get. the rumors are true. miracles happen here. it ain t where i want to be but i sure ain t where i used to be and that is something to be grateful for right there. [ applause ] reporter: in the early years when you started to get arrested, were you offered any kind of treatment? when i first came through the county jail it was at 1983. they pretty much didn t do anything for you at that time. when i got to that police station it wasn t no treatment.
my love for heroin has made this become my home. i live in jail and periodically visit the streets. i just about sold my soul to the devil when i started using heroin. in chicago, state-funded treatment on the outside has been slashed by more than 50%. cuts that disproportionately affect black users. for many of these men, this may be the only treatment they ll ever get. the rumors are true, that miracles happen here. i ain t where i want to be, but i m damn sure ain t where i used to be. and that s something to be grateful for right there. in the early years when you first started getting arrested, were you offered my kind of treatment? when i first came through the county jail it was at 1983. they pretty much didn t do anything for you at that time. when i got to that police station it wasn t no treatment.
when i got to that police station it wasn t no treatment. it was you got a back grown and that s the bottom line. reporter: right now in the chicago suburbs and also in this country, if you go to a police department, in some cases the police may approach you and say if you give up your heroin, instead of arresting you they will give you an opportunity to get treatment. when you hear that, how does it make you feel? i don t think that s ever going to happen. not in our community. if i take any drugs i m going to jail. in our neighborhoods we don t have those programs. we don t have the officers that say come on, let he help you rather than arrest you. i wasn t born on the right side of the tracks. it is a total betrayal. what about me? i feel like it is bull [ bleep ]. that s how i feel. do you think that if that opportunity were offered to you, years and years ago to go in to