New program addresses county jail's revolving door

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

In the restaurant business, it's good when people keep coming back. In the jail business, it's not.

Nonetheless, people do keep returning to jail, and Larimer County is making a dramatic effort to turn that trend around.

Most of those using the jail's revolving door struggle with mental health or substance abuse issues. To address repeat offenders' underlying problems, officials would like to see a comprehensive treatment program and help them become contributing members of society.

On a large scale, that will require new facilities and money for treatment. (See related article.) But on a smaller scale, the county is already moving forward with a new program.

The program, launched in mid-July, involves intensive therapy and education while the inmate is in jail, plus continued support once he or she returns to the community. It's geared to offenders with "co-occurring disorders," or both substance abuse and mental health issues.

Called the Larimer County Offender Re-entry Program, the new strategy is intended to help inmates stay clean and out of trouble after they finish doing their time. When it's fully operational, it could help as many as 120 inmates per year.

If this program and others already being used in the county are successful, the recidivism rate at the Larimer County Detention Center should go down --and with it the need to build more jail space in the near future.

"We can't afford to continue to build jails," said Gary Darling, the county's criminal justice planning manager. Darling was previously a major with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and was in charge of the detention center. In his new job, reducing recidivism is one of Darling's top priorities.

Jails across the country are crowded with people who have substance abuse or mental health issues, said Richard Guest, director of the new re-entry program. Nationally, three out of four people in jail suffer from one of those problems--or both, since they often occur together.

Colorado as a whole does a poor job of treating these problems, Guest pointed out. For substance abuse services, Colorado came in last among 47 states that were studied. In mental health services, the state ranks 31st.

As a result of this lack of services, people with substance abuse or mental health problems are highly likely to end up back in jail.

"Jails have become the de facto mental health hospitals," Guest noted.

Research-based

The new re-entry program involves intensive therapy and education, plus continued support once an inmate leaves the jail. It's based on national research on recidivism and on the treatment of co-occurring disorders. Research has identified what works best in a re-entry program and who the best candidates for such a program are.

Guest, a senior management analyst with Larimer County Health and Human Services, is a psychologist formerly in private practice. He is bringing his skills to bear on the recidivism problem in Larimer County.

"To address growing jail populations, we need an effective way to work with these populations so they don't continue to return to jail," Guest said. "A large percentage of inmates need treatment, not just incarceration. Programs such as this attempt to address both of these sets of needs."

The first full year of the re-entry program will cost about $450,000 including start-up costs and in-kind services. When the three-phase program is up to full capacity, 96 people will be able to complete treatment each year, with another 24 in Phases I and II.

For those 120 people, the program cost will be about $23 per day, compared with $108 per day to be housed at the detention center. So, if a good percentage of the participants stay out of jail, savings to the county will be large.

How it works

Individuals being recruited for the re-entry program have high substance abuse needs and minor mental health needs. "These are the people who most benefit from re-entry programs," Guest noted.

They are at moderate to high risk of relapsing into substance abuse, and the crimes they commit - which land them back in jail - are generally related to those addictions.

Re-entry is a voluntary program for the inmate and lasts five to six months. The court must also agree to an inmate's participation. With room for eight people in each phase, the re-entry program will have 24 people involved at any time once it's fully operational.

For now, the program is open to men only because of space limitations at the detention center. Guest said that adding a program for women is his next priority.

The first participants are already immersed in Phase I, an intensive inpatient treatment program for co-occurring issues. Participants live and study in a pod separated from the rest of the jail population, and their daily schedules are quite full. Included are group and individual therapy plus classes in anger management, relapse prevention, job preparation and life skills such as money management.

Phase I also includes a focus on how inmates think. This curriculum is based on the work of Stanton Samenow, a psychologist and researcher who identified cognitive patterns or "thinking errors" that many incarcerated people have in common. For example, Guest said, a person might see something he wants and just take it, without thinking about the consequences involved.

Samenow developed a method for teaching people to correct these thinking errors, and that approach is being used in the local re-entry program.

Phase II of the program starts when the inmate moves from the jail to the halfway house, or community corrections. During this phase the person works during the day and continues the re-entry program in the evening.

In Phase III, the inmate is released to live in the community. However, outpatient therapy and supervision continue. Financial assistance is available in Phase III for needs such as housing, therapy and prescriptions.

A case manager supports the inmate through all phases of the program, helping him maintain new habits and avoid the old ones.

Family therapy is a feature that Guest sees as particularly important. "Family" is defined broadly in the program and can include anyone who provides significant support to the inmate. Support persons attend separate education sessions while the inmate is incarcerated, and in Phase III they and the inmates attend sessions together.

Program partners

Many partners are involved in the re-entry program, including Larimer County Health and Human Services, Sheriff's Office, Workforce Center, Cooperative Extension and Community Corrections. Funding comes from several county coffers and also from a Byrne grant of $150,000.

"We are just one of a number of programs, all intended to address aspects of the recidivism problem," Guest said.

Because of these programs, Darling noted, Larimer County will not need more jail space until 2012 or later. A few years ago, trends indicated that the county would run out of jail space in 2007.

Programs that reduce recidivism are saving the county--and its taxpayers --lots of money. On the human side, Guest added, the value of improving people's lives so they can stay out of jail is "priceless.