Kane County jail stats prove opioid prevention program a real lifesaver
I wish I could remember the names of every mom or dad I’ve talked to over the past 12 years who lost their kid to opioids after being released from a treatment center or jail.
But the list would be too long, the stories too tragic.
That’s why my mouth literally fell open when I saw the graph the Kane County Sheriff ’s Department sent out this week noting that fatal overdoses from released inmates dropped a whopping 89% since the jail created its Recovery Pod two years ago.
Sheriff Ron Hain said he too was “incredibly surprised” when the data came in but “also incredibly happy.”
And, I might add, darn proud of these results — especially in this pandemic when overdoes in general remain a concerning issue.
So he’s ready to take this local show — more specifically, this model — on the road.
“Seventy-four times,” he told me. “That’s how more likely someone is to OD and die upon release if they do not get treatment while in custody.”
It’s the reason treatment while incarcerated is so essential. Make that critical.
And the sheriff can prove that by analyzing the opioid-related death data from the Kane County coroner’s office with the names of those released from the jail during 2019 and 2020.
For a better metric, he said, those jail lists were also compared to the coroner data for 2017 and 2018 before the Recovery Pod in the adult corrections facility was formed.
In 2017, 11 people left custody at the jail and later overdosed and died. In 2018 that number rose to 15.
In 2019, however, it dropped to two. And in 2020 there was just one fatal overdose.
Those impressive results are the efforts of a partnership with Lighthouse Recovery of St. Charles, which provides Suboxone — a medication used in therapy for opiate addiction — along with intensive counseling twice a week at the jail, and equally important, a reentry support program that includes job placement and group counseling to help offenders once they are released.
Currently, Hain said, there are 52 men and 12 women in the Recovery Pod, a program that, he added, has helped shift the mindset of his staff, who see their job as “redirecting” these offenders, rather than just “housing them in cages.”
All of which, Hain said, has led to other positive numbers, including a 35% drop in inmate violence two years in a row as well as a 90% decrease in attacks on officers.
The model Kane County is using was taken from a similar program in a Pennsylvania county jail. And, while the more progressive corrections departments across the country are starting to see the benefits of this kind of approach, “the intensity of this local one is not like others I have seen” throughout the state, the sheriff said.
That’s why Hain is more than eager to share this most recent data with his colleagues, which he and Lighthouse Clinical Director Nate Lanthrum will begin doing April 8 when they are part of a virtual statewide panel on opioid prevention programs in jails.
“The hard work and dedication of the men and women in this program has been incredible to witness, especially in light of the events of the last 12 months,” said Lanthrum, referring in a news release to the uptick in opioid use and overdoses during the pandemic.
The fact these numbers prove these former inmates are less likely to start using drugs again when they go home is important because people become far more susceptible to overdosing after they’ve been clean for a while.
A dose that may have once been tolerated could become fatal.
And too often it does. Which is the reason I’ve talked to so many moms and dads over the years riddled with grief and undeserved but still gut-wrenching guilt. The pain these families go through when a loved one is an addict is hard enough. Burying them after they hoped they were on the road to recovery is cruelty beyond compare.
That’s why the drop in lethal overdose cases is a huge step in the right direction and an undeniable indicator of success.
And it’s why Hain, in response to the recently-passed criminal justice reform bill that does away with the cash bail system, is working closely with the state’s attorney’s office and other agencies to make sure there are enough proven programs like the Recovery Pod in place.
To go backward after so many positive steps, so many lives saved, truly would be criminal.
“Because relapse could be right around the corner, we have to have plenty of support wrapped around these inmates when they are released to make sure that does not happen,” Hain said.