From 50 Arrests to Helping Others Recover: The Redemption Story of Alan Roberts
6/5/2026
by Brandon Burley and The Redemption Project
Alan Roberts remembers looking at people who injected drugs and thinking they did not deserve to live.
Years later, he became one of them.
Today, Roberts is a licensed counselor, operates recovery housing, helps people rebuild their lives after addiction and incarceration, and recently received a pardon from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee
His story is Season 2, Episode 13 of The Redemption Project.
Listen to the full episode here
The journey between those two realities was anything but straight.
Roberts was raised in a stable home by parents who neither drank nor used drugs. His first experiences with alcohol came as a teenager, in a culture where drinking was often treated as normal teenage behavior. Marijuana followed. Cocaine followed that.
Even after experimenting with drugs, Roberts built what appeared to be a successful life. He married, started a family, attended college and worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Then came a hernia surgery.
The prescription pain medication that followed became the turning point.
What began with hydrocodone eventually led to pain clinics, OxyContin, forged prescriptions and intravenous drug use. Addiction consumed everything around it.
Over the years, Roberts was arrested more than 50 times.
He cycled through jail, halfway houses, failed recovery attempts and periods where he would briefly rebuild his life before losing everything again.
“I’d get everything back in about 90 days to six months,” he said. “The job. The money. The trust. The vehicle. Then somewhere down the road I’d have a needle in my arm again.”
The pattern repeated itself for years.
The breakthrough did not come when life became easier.
It came when life became unbearable.
Roberts recalls reaching a point where he no longer wanted to live the way he had been living. Looking back, he believes that moment was also his return to God.
“I wasn’t going to live like this anymore,” he said.
In 2011, Roberts entered Hope of East Tennessee and began building something he had never successfully built before: a recovery community.
Not just meetings.
Not just treatment.
People.
People who believed in him when he no longer believed in himself.
One of those people was Marvin Hatcher, a recovery mentor who trusted Roberts with responsibility long before many others would have.
For Roberts, that trust mattered.
Someone believed there was still something worth saving.
Recovery was not instant. Outstanding warrants eventually landed him back in jail while he was getting clean. Facing the possibility of prison, he made a decision that would change everything.
Whether he received Drug Court, prison or another consequence, he was going to stay clean.
No matter what.
This time was different.
That commitment became more than sobriety.
It became purpose.
Roberts completed Drug Court, earned a bachelor’s degree from Tennessee Tech, later earned a master’s degree in social work and became a licensed alcohol and drug counselor.
Today, he helps lead New Purpose and Foundation House, organizations dedicated to helping men and women find recovery, housing and stability.
The same man who once believed there was no way out now spends his days helping others find one.
He estimates that over the years he has worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of people seeking recovery.
Not all of them make it.
But Roberts has changed the way he defines success.
For many people in recovery, success is measured only by perfect outcomes. Roberts sees it differently.
Even if someone eventually relapses, the months spent reconnecting with family, holding a job, being present as a parent or contributing to society still matter.
Those moments count.
Those victories are real.
Earlier this year, Roberts’ story reached another milestone when he received a gubernatorial pardon.
For many people, that would have been the ending.
For Roberts, it feels more like another beginning.
The pardon recognized a life transformed.
The work continues because there are still people sitting in jail cells, treatment centers and halfway houses who believe their story is already over.
Roberts knows something they do not.
“We do recover.”
That sentence is simple, but it carries the weight of everything he survived.
It is not a slogan. It is testimony.
Alan Roberts’ story is not clean, easy or polished. Redemption rarely is. It is messy. It includes consequences. It includes accountability. It includes people who get tired, fall short, try again and keep reaching for something better.
But his life also shows why no person should be reduced to the worst chapter of his story.
The man arrested more than 50 times now helps others find recovery.
The man who once judged people trapped in addiction became someone who sits beside them, walks with them and reminds them there is still a way forward.
That is redemption.
And that is why this story matters.
For more from The Redemption Project, including civic explainers, redemption stories, faith-centered conversations, good news features, interviews and my award-winning podcast, start here:
https://brandonburley.start.page
I am a retired detective and criminal justice / government educator based in Tennessee. I am a commentary write for Tennessee Lookout and a weekly columnist with Knox TN Today. My work examines public policy, public safety systems and civic responsibility. My reporting and commentary have also appeared in Governing, The Arizona Capitol Times, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Police1, among other state and regional outlets.
