Jail treats inmates with substance abuse issues to break the cycle of recidivism

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  The consequences of the nation's opioid crisis ripple through many aspects of society, including our criminal justice system.

  It's estimated that up to 65 percent of the U.S. prison population has some sort of active substance use disorder. And when these inmates are released, studies have shown that many will return to using and be arrested again within a few years.

  But Stephanie Sy recently visited a jail in Kentucky that's trying to not only break that cycle, but also to save lives.

  It's part of our ongoing series Searching for Justice.

  Bethany Ball, Associate Director of Addiction Services, Kenton County Detention Center: So, what does the group feel like his — another character defect that he's struggling with?

• Stephanie Sy:

  Bethany Ball has a way of getting people to open up, she approaches inmates as she would any other patient struggling with addiction.

• Inmate:

  You know, I have had issues in the past with trusting people, especially people that I get close to.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Ball is a substance abuse counselor at the Kenton County Jail in Covington, Kentucky. She leads a program for about 100 men and women who are getting addiction treatment while serving time.

• Bethany Ball:

  But I hope you all keep in mind, like, all of this, it's like, how is this affecting your recovery?

• Inmate:

  You know, you can't just constantly run from yourself everywhere you go. You're going to have to face reality at some point.

• Stephanie Sy:

  This is essentially an inpatient treatment facility within the Kenton County Jail. Not only do they offer classes and counseling. They offer medications that can treat opioid use disorder and prevent overdoses.

• Speaker:

  What would you consider to be your drug of choice?

• Inmate:

  Opiates.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Access to medications for those that qualify makes this program unique.

• Speaker:

  Have you ever done medically assisted treatment? We're talking Vivitrol, buprenorphine?

• Inmate:

  Yes, sir.

• Stephanie Sy:

  It started in 2015 with a mix of federal and state grants.

• Speaker:

  Have you ever overdosed on opiates?

• Inmate:

  Yes.

• Speaker:

  Approximately how many times?

• Inmate:

  Probably five.

• Stephanie Sy:

  It's estimated that about 270,000 prisoners in the U.S. have an opioid addiction, but only 5 percent of them have access to medications like buprenorphine, which can reduce cravings.

• Tommy Arnold, Inmate:

  Being in addiction, it's horrible.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Twenty-six-year-old Tommy Arnold is preparing for life on the outside.

• Tommy Arnold:

  My fears is going back to the old people, places and thanks. That's my — that's my main fear.

• Stephanie Sy:

  And the old people, places and things mean?

• Tommy Arnold:

  Friends that has connections to the opioids.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Arnold was arrested on a drug charge last year.

• Tommy Arnold:

  I have been in this addiction since — since I was in the womb. My mom smoked crack. I came out addicted to — a crack baby.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Arnold's says, when his mom died of a drug overdose in 2011, his life began to spiral.

• Tommy Arnold:

  Anything that I could get my hands on, I was doing it, if it an opiate.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Along with daily therapy and self-help classes, Arnold also receives a monthly shot of buprenorphine.

  Getting this treatment while in jail has given him hope for recovery, but could also save his life.

• Tommy Arnold:

  To be honest, I'm just — I'm just a sick man. I still have desires of wanting to use.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Studies have shown that, in the first two weeks after release from incarceration, people are up to 40 times more likely to die from an opioid overdose than the general public.

• Bethany Ball:

  When you were in active addiction before you came in, you were usually taking a higher dose, and now you have detoxed some. And so that is a more lethal dose for you.

  So, we talk about the dangers of using when they're released. And we talk about the options available to them.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Kenton County jailer Marc Fields says the medications are an important option for rehabilitation.

• Marc Fields, Kenton County Detention Center:

  We want it to be taking effect so that those cravings aren't the one deciding factor about every choice I make in my life when I walk out that door.

• Stephanie Sy:

  He says another goal of the treatment program is to try to limit recidivism. About 70 percent of inmates here are locked up on drug charges.

• Marc Fields:

  If this is a war on drugs, we definitely are losing that battle. Our philosophies of all those ways about we can incarcerate our way out of this and we're going to arrest everybody just plain doesn't work.

  You cannot take somebody and put them back in the same situation that they came from and expect them to succeed.

• Stephanie Sy:

  For inmates in the jail substance abuse program, the journey doesn't end upon release.

• Speaker:

  Now, we are going to follow you on a weekly basis. Know that, so please do the right thing.

• Stephanie Sy:

  For many, the next stop is a ride to the Life Learning Center, also in Covington. It's a sort of one-stop shop for returning citizens.

  Once here, participants learn how to reestablish their identification…

• Speaker:

  Do you have your driver's license?

• Stephanie Sy:

  … enroll in public insurance and receive help finding both housing and jobs.

• Speaker:

  And what I wrote is, the past is the past. I won't let it determine my present or future.

• Stephanie Sy:

  They also take classes that focus on coping skills and confronting how their addictions began.

• Jeff Schultz, Returning Citizen:

  I started using drugs when I was 7 years old, because I was beaten and abused all my life.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Fifty-five-year-old Jeff Schultz came to the Life Learning Center in October after being released from the Kenton County Jail.

  After battling addiction and depression for most of his life, he says he began using heroin five years ago. That led to using fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that's up to 50 times more powerful.

• Jeff Schultz:

  I mean, I accidentally overdosed, gosh, eight to 10 times on that. And that's got to be the most embarrassing, humiliating thing I have ever felt in my life, waking up, and you look around, and there's the paramedics working on you. And you know what happened, and you know did it again. And all you can think of is getting out of there to go get high again.

• Stephanie Sy:

  This summer, Schultz violated probation from a previous drug charge and was locked up for 90 days. He began the in-jail treatment program and was put on buprenorphine.

  For him, it was game-changing.

  Do you still have cravings sometimes?

• Jeff Schultz:

  I have none.

• Stephanie Sy:

  What does it feel like to have your brain be back to being yours, and not in the grips of an addictive substance?

• Jeff Schultz:

  Have you ever burnt your hand?

• Stephanie Sy:

  Yes.

• Jeff Schultz:

  You know how that burn just won't stop?

• Stephanie Sy:

  Yes.

• Jeff Schultz:

  And then, eventually, it goes away? Well, that's what it feels like.

  You don't realize the sting, you don't realize how bad it burns and how bad is destroying you until it's gone.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Schultz credits the Life Learning Center with helping him slowly rebuild his life. He's now living in transitional housing and working as a painter.

• Jeff Schultz:

  Coming from the background I come from, when people reach out to you like — like that, it's greatly appreciated.

• Stephanie Sy:

  The Life Learning Center also provides much-needed essentials, like food, clothing, and even bicycles. And they hire employees who know what it's like to walk in the formerly incarcerated shoes.

• Ashley Boothby, Life Learning Center:

  So, were you in Kenton County then? Is that where you were incarcerated?

• Stephanie Sy:

  Ashley Boothby is a peer support specialist here. She's 11 years removed from a heroin and opioid addiction that sent her to prison for more than a year.

• Ashley Boothby:

  As soon as you tell someone that you're in recovery too, it's like, oh, she gets it. She knows what it's like to neglect your family and your responsibilities all because your life becomes consumed by drugs and alcohol.

• Stephanie Sy:

  The nonprofit Life Learning Center is overseen by Alecia Webb-Edgington, who spent decades in law enforcement.

• Alecia Webb-Edgington, Life Learning Center:

  Ninety-eight percent of the people that we see at Life Learning Center have substance use disorder, and 82 percent have a co-diagnosis of a mental health disorder.

• Stephanie Sy:

  For individuals who have completed all six months of this treatment program, three months in jail, three months in aftercare, Webb-Edgington says 24 percent or rearrested within three years.

  That compares to a 68 percent recidivism rate for all us prisoners during the same period.

• Tommy Arnold:

  Been doing this for too long. It's not the life to have.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Tommy Arnold is already planning to hedge the Life Learning Center once he's released.

• Tommy Arnold:

  If I could get one more chance, I wouldn't let myself down.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Sometimes, a second chance isn't enough. Tommy has been in treatment before, and it didn't take.

  Bethany Ball says she never gives up on anyone willing to try again.

• Bethany Ball:

  If you get somebody the resource they need and it saves their life, then it was worth it. One person, that's worth it to me, because that spreads.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Arnold is scheduled to be released from jail this week. Addiction may yet haunt him, but the Kenton County Jail substance abuse program may have given him a fighting chance.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy in Covington, Kentucky.