There was a time when illicit drugs were a daily preoccupation for Katrina Beatty.
Now, her six-month-old son Cyrus Ryver is the apple of her eye day and night — and, Beatty likes to crow, she has been free of drugs for 11 months.
“In two weeks I’m going to start on my GED (to obtain a high school diploma) at the (Allen Community) college,” she said Thursday afternoon. “Cyrus is my miracle,” and what drives her to stay on the straight and narrow and be the best mother she can be.
In early March Beatty was an inmate at Allen County Jail awaiting disposition for drug charges. She also was nearly eight months pregnant.
At the time there was talk of releasing on Beatty on an OR (own recognizance) bond. Instead, Sheriff Bryan Murphy, even after Department of Children and Families denied assistance, opted to keep her as an inmate.
Releasing her would have saved Allen County the cost of prenatal care.
“I’m not going to do that,” Murphy told the Register in March. “I feel morally and ethically bound to protect the baby, no matter what it costs.”
To the county’s advantage, no extraordinary costs evolved because of Beatty’s condition.
On the cusp of giving birth, Beatty was transferred to a women’s facility in Wichita.
“I got there the day Cyrus was born,” April 3, she recalled.
He weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces at birth and has had no problems since.
Beatty has two other children, a grown son and a daughter nearly so, who live in Kansas City with their father, whom she never married.
She was working as a housekeeper at Crossroads Motel in exchange for a room when she got pregnant. Cyrus’ father also was arrested for drugs and is in prison; she’s not sure where.
BEATTY WAS BACK in Iola on Tuesday because of the death of her father, Augustine Gomez. She intends to stay with relatives for the time being while she sorts out what the remainder of her life will entail.
“I want to get some education and make a better life for me and for Cyrus,” she said.
She completed a drug interdiction program in Wichita after giving birth.
