Robert Barbosa (Photo submitted)

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By: Casey Roberts 

casey.roberts@bluegrassnewsmedia.com

For Robert Barbosa, returning to the same jail where he once served time carries more meaning than most job titles ever could.

Barbosa, who previously worked as a re-entry coordinator in Fayette County, recently transitioned to serve in the same role at the Jessamine County Detention Center — a place he says once marked the beginning of his own transformation.

“Being back in a very place the Lord pulled me out of has just encouraged me,” Barbosa said. “The very people I used to run the streets with, the very guards that I know — I’m able to just be a light in this darkness.”

Barbosa, who celebrates eight years of sobriety on Oct. 22, said his journey began the day he was incarcerated at the jail he now walks into daily as a mentor and leader. He considers his sobriety to include the time he spent behind bars, noting that choosing not to use drugs while incarcerated was the first step in reclaiming his life.

“I went straight into Revive after that — it was a one-year program,” he said. “When I walked in the doors at Revive, everything I had been searching for throughout my life, that missing piece, I found — and that was love.”

Barbosa said that community support and seeing examples of healthy fatherhood and leadership were pivotal in his healing. The labels that once defined him — drug addict, drug dealer, womanizer — were replaced by a new identity.

“They saw me as a son, as a brother, as a friend, and most importantly, as a child of God,” he said.

His past now serves as a bridge to connect with inmates who already know his story. Barbosa says he’s approached daily by individuals curious about how he turned his life around.

“I just told them I surrendered my life to Jesus,” he said. “That’s the quick answer, but there’s a lot more that goes along with it. I share with them how important it is to build community in their lives.”

His goal, he said, is to help others experience the same freedom he found — not just freedom from addiction or incarceration, but from the internal prisons people often place themselves in.

“If I can get them to learn what freedom is, each person that gets out of here and walks in that freedom betters our community as a whole,” Barbosa said. “You’ve got men wanting to be fathers again. Women trying to be moms again. That’s my whole goal — the family piece.”

When asked about the most important tools for recovery, Barbosa said the road is different for everyone — but he believes the destination is the same.

“There are many streets that lead into the recovery east,” he said. “But there’s only one way to the Father, and that’s through Jesus Christ. That’s my goal — to help people learn their identity.”