Tool for treatment
Law enforcement will link people to resources
Finding herself standing between Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Berks County District Attorney John Adams on Tuesday morning, April 13, to announce a new drug treatment initiative, Yvonne Stroman said the scene would have seemed completely unfathomable three decades ago.
Back then she thought the role of law enforcement was to arrest, detain and punish. But that perspective, she said, was shaded by her own experiences that came as a result of her struggles with substance abuse.
“My disease catapulted me into situations that landed me in prison,” she said. “Ultimately, I was afforded the opportunity to enter into treatment and that is the place where I learned about addiction, responsibility and accountability.”
A lot has changed since then.
Stroman is now the community programs specialist at the Council on Chemical Abuse, a nonprofit agency that provides addiction resources and recovery support to people who live in Berks County. And through her work with the agency she has seen the role of law enforcement in a whole new light.
“Today I know and understand the value of what help can look like and who is in the position to offer that help,” she told a small group gathered in a courtyard outside the RISE Center on North Eighth Street in Reading. “The truth is that I have the pleasure to work alongside and collaborate with law enforcement so that others can get well.”
Stroman is not the only one who recognizes the importance law enforcement can play in helping those who are battling drug addiction.
Shapiro and Adams were there to announce that Berks has joined a program in collaboration with law enforcement to provide assistance to those suffering from substance use disorders by helping them enroll in treatment programs.
The Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative allows those seeking treatment for addiction the ability to use local police officers, sheriff deputies, probation officers and parole officers as a resource to contact treatment partners without the threat of arrest.
“We cannot arrest our way out of this crisis,” Shapiro said while surrounded by local law enforcement officials during the press conference. “Instead, we need to treat drug addiction like the disease it is and help reduce the stigma that prevents people from reaching out to get the help they need.”
Shapiro said this grassroots effort aims to do just that.
“We need to make treatment more accessible and make those who people trust the most in their communities available to help those battling addiction,” he said. “This program is a key part of our strategy and a key tool for law enforcement.”
Under the program, law enforcement will:
• Open their station doors to those suffering from addiction.
• Help identify treatment for those who seek it.
• Assist with ensuring that people have transportation to the facilities.
• Maintain relationships with local treatment providers to understand availability and collect data to study outcomes.
That means individuals can now contact a member of law enforcement at any time to ask to be connected to treatment with no threat of arrest or prosecution. The policy also gives law enforcement the ability to connect individuals to treatment at their discretion.
The program began in 2018 with Somerset County becoming the first to partner with the state. Since then, the initiative has expanded to several other counties with Berks earning the distinction of being the seventh to join the effort.
“Dozens of individuals have been diverted into treatment using this program and they are now working their way toward recovery,” Shapiro said.
He said his office is confronting addiction on several fronts by taking on the drug companies that helped to manufacture the opioid crisis in their boardrooms and by taking the most deadly drugs off the streets.
Adams said he believes giving law enforcement officials the ability to make immediate referrals to treatment will save lives.
There were 130 confirmed drug deaths in Berks in 2020, eclipsing the previous record of 126 in 2019, according to Acting Coroner Jonn Hollenbach.
And if the first three months of 2021 are any indication, the decade-long crisis shows no signs of slowing.
Hollenbach said that as of Tuesday his office has logged 22 confirmed drug deaths so far this year, and that 14 suspected drug deaths are still pending toxicology reports.
“Treatment is many times the most appropriate tool to help low level, nonviolent offenders,” Adams said. “Having a diversion program that helps people before they become another statistic of the criminal justice system makes complete sense and will help us keep the right people out of that system and on the road to recovery.”
He said so far police departments in Reading, Wyomissing, Spring Township and Cumru Township have agreed to join the county in this collaboration. But he’s hoping more departments will get on board once they see the impact of the program.
Reading Police Chief Richard Tornelli said he believes the program will be beneficial for the officers who are often on the frontlines of this crisis, adding that it will allow them to divert people out of the criminal justice system and get them into treatment.
“We, in law enforcement, are here to help,” he said. “This tool will allow us to help some people in our most vulnerable population.”
Stanley Papademetriou, executive director of the Council on Chemical Abuse, said the county has many programs it has deployed over the decades to help stem the pipeline of those struggling with addiction into the criminal justice system. He noted the efforts to steer incarcerated individuals into treatment programs and cited the success of drug treatment court.
But, he said, this new program is a little different.
“Law enforcement knows what addiction looks like,” he said. “The important thing is that this program provides them with a tool to help people get the treatment they need sometimes before they ever enter the criminal justice system.”