How Nick Wells Exercised Away His Drug Addiction

By Evanie Gamble and Norah Hively in collaboration with CU Boulder’s News Corps

In 2008, a string of theft charges he’d incurred trying to support a drug addiction left Nick Wells looking at a 60-year prison sentence. Demoralized by the prospect of facing so many years in prison when even murderers faced far fewer, he felt compelled to take action, discovering CrossFit as a means of helping people on the inside. 

Back in 1992 at the age of 14, Wells moved with his family to Colorado Springs. “I moved here from California and I just didn’t fit in with the crowd here,” Wells said. “Everybody knew each other. All of the guys were friends since elementary school.” 

Wells explains how he liked playing sports but the teams were super cliquey and he felt out of place. So he turned to a different crowd: one that snuck out at night to steal and drink.

“I started drinking, smoking weed and doing meth when I was like 14,” Wells said. After that, his addiction to methamphetamine took over his life, as he spent the next 14 years going in and out of jail for crimes related to getting money to feed his addiction. 

“That turned out to be breaking into vehicles, stealing laptops [and] stealing cars,” Wells said. “Whatever it took to get those drugs to repeat that cycle.”

Then, in 2008, Wells received his 60-year sentence after being charged by both the Colorado Springs and Castle Rock Police Departments. 

“I was like, man, that was a harsh reality, a slap in the face,” Wells said. “People were getting 30, 40 years for murder and I’m getting 60 years for stealing behind a drug addiction.” 

Wells spent the next two years in county jail, fighting his case and going to trial. During that time, he stopped using drugs and replaced his cravings with food. Wells explains that he once weighed 400 pounds. 

“I realized what I had done,” Wells said. “I had replaced an addiction for an addiction.”

That is when Wells turned to exercise, not only to improve his physical fitness but also to stay sober. For a while, Wells and other inmates were simply doing CrossFit to improve their overall health and attitude, until a friend of Wells was caught using drugs and his workout privileges were revoked. 

“I understand there’s repercussions for getting high, but you’re taking away the one avenue that is healthy to release this stress,” Wells said. 

Wells and his fellow inmates did not believe this method of punishment was logical, so they submitted a proposal to the prison administration recommending that people caught with drugs be sent to their CrossFit classes as a means of sobriety. The administration reluctantly agreed, assigning Wells and his friends six students to teach for six weeks.

Limon Correctional Facility was impressed by the success of this program. After the six-week trial period, the program continued, creating the nonprofit known as Redemption Road CrossFit.

“We knew that there was racial segregation and politics and there was drugs—all these dumb things that plagued prison for years that really have no reason to be there other than they have just been there,” Wells said. “It’s just like a dirty pair of shoes or socks on the floor; unless you just pick it up, it’s just going to stay there and we felt the same way. Why is there a stigma of racism where whites can’t work out with Blacks and Mexicans? It’s just fitness; there should be no politics.” 

Along with creating a space to unite people of all backgrounds to work out together, Redemption Road CrossFit was the first ever to give a CrossFit Level-One Certification inside prison. This later resulted in many more inside Limon Correctional, including some that were Level Two. 

The program held two competitions in prison, the first in 2019. “We invited 30 people from the CrossFit community in Colorado to compete with us inside prison,” Wells said. It was the first time civilians could volunteer to go inside a prison for an event like this.

Everyone was assigned a random partner, and Wells was paired with Violeta Chapin, an attorney and clinical professor of law at the University of Colorado Boulder. The pair went on to win the competition that day, but Wells also got a shot at freedom. After the competition, Chapin maintained contact with Wells, sending him a Christmas card and calling him on the phone. 

“[Chapin] called up to the facility and said she had it on her heart to get me out,” Wells said.

Chapin decided to attend the competition that day not only because she enjoyed CrossFit but also because she was interested in prison reform in America. This was her opportunity to try to make a difference while having fun.

Throughout the competition, Chapin and Wells got to know each other very well. She began asking him about his background. He told her about his prison sentence. 

“What I learned from Nick was that he was serving what amounted to a life sentence for nonviolent property offenses, which to me was pretty shocking,” Chapin explained. Wells’ sentence was not only completely unfair, but it also drained taxpayer resources. This, combined with his kindness, prompted Chapin to take on his case.

Chapin started building Wells’ case in December 2019, with the help of three of her students. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic struck months later, in March 2020. This served as a catalyst in Wells’ case, as prison officials sought to release more inmates in order to reduce the risk of disease spread.

Chapin used this as part of her argument for Wells’ release from prison. Her petition to Governor Jared Polis and the clemency board argued that Wells’ sentence was disproportionate to the nonviolent crimes he committed, that he had an extraordinary prison rehabilitation story and that COVID-19 was a health-related issue for which prisons lacked resources.

Wells had not had a single disciplinary violation during his 14-year sentence. The warden at Limon Correctional Facility wrote a letter on his behalf to the clemency board, citing his exemplary inmate status. Chapin’s case was also backed by numerous others who supported Wells for the stand-up citizen that he was, including 160 CrossFitters from around the world. 

“I mean, we say this all the time, that it takes a village, but it truly does,” Chapin said. Because of this village, Wells was able to be released from prison on May 10, 2022, approximately 15 years earlier than his original sentence.

“My first stop was this building,” Wells said from a gym in Colorado Springs. “I came right here to work out at the Phoenix.”

The Phoenix, founded by Scott Strode in 2006, is a sober, active community. The nonprofit organization has several gyms across the country that help people stay sober through workout classes and community events. 

Wells first learned about the Phoenix from inside a prison while developing Redemption Road CrossFit. For years, he had been sending inmates from his program to join the Phoenix once they were released—now he was able to join the organization. 

After being released from prison, Wells became a full-time volunteer with the Phoenix. At the same time, he secured a full-time position coaching and managing another Colorado Springs gym, CrossFit Decimate. 

“I just started coaching at other gyms, trying to make a life as a CrossFit coach and just try to figure my way out after spending 14 years in prison,” Wells said. “I was like this is all new to me, like smartphones, technology and all that, but one thing I did know was CrossFit.”

Wells discovered a thriving community in CrossFit waiting for him after he was released. After a year and a half of coaching and volunteering, Wells was promoted to manager of the Phoenix’s Colorado Springs location, which was his dream job. 

“The community that I’ve met through this became my community,” Wells said. “Seeing people from all walks of life makes me really reflect on where I was on my journey.” He describes how the Phoenix and others, such as Chapin, helped him stay sober after his release. 

Chapin and Wells are now colleagues. Wells recently joined the board of the Alternate Defense Counsel (ADC), Colorado’s conflict resolution council for public defenders. He joined after Chapin, who was already a member, suggested he join as a former client who had a bad experience with an ADC lawyer who handled his case in 2008.

“I can’t believe we didn’t have an impacted client before,” Chapin said. “It has been extraordinary to have him participate and talk about criminal defense from his perspective.”

Chapin and Wells keep in contact outside a professional setting. “We still get together for workouts,” says Chapin. “He’ll come up to Boulder and I’ve gone to Colorado Springs to do that.” Wells has even met Chapin’s family and often stays at their guest house for the weekend.

Wells continues to assist the prison community. With the help of his colleague Mika Mumme, Associate Regional Manager for the Phoenix, he created CrossFit classes for prison inmates through a program called Edovo. This nonprofit enables inmates to view its classes on tablets and exercise from their cells. Colorado is the first state to allow tablets inside for inmates; Edovo and Phoenix allow inmates to complete workouts and provide feedback on their classes. 

“To hear that they’re doing it and creating impact and spreading this movement of sobriety and internal strength in the prison system is really cool to see,” Mumme said.

Wells is now president of Redemption Road CrossFit. He continues to work for both CrossFit Decimate and the Phoenix in Colorado Springs as a coach and manager. On top of that, he privately coaches adaptive athletes, one of which is a 67-year-old woman, paralyzed from the waist down, who was able to qualify to compete in the CrossFit Games.  

“That one little sentence changed my life,” says Wells, referring to a friend in jail telling him he needed to start working out. It led to Wells improving his life both inside and outside of prison, wanting to rehabilitate himself and maintaining a friendly, positive attitude with the ongoing support of his supporters and the CrossFit community.

Part two of this series, which focuses on the Phoenix’s new model for addiction treatment, will be released next week.