Answer Addiction

Tag: treatment over jail time

  • Connecting With The Police Helped Her Get Sober

    Connecting With The Police Helped Her Get Sober

    Sending a single text message helped one woman living with addiction get the help she needed to start her sober journey.

    When Shannon McCarty realized that she wanted to start living life—and not just try to escape it by using meth and heroin—she knew that she could turn to a police officer who had slipped her a card and said to call when she was ready for help. 

    So, McCarty mustered the courage to send the following text to Officer Inci Yarkut, a member of the Community Outreach and Enforcement Team with the Everett, Washington Police Department, according to NPR.

    “Hello Inci, I tried to send you a message a few weeks ago I’m not sure if you got it … I was hoping to set up a time to meet with you for your help on the stuff we had talked about. I don’t want to go to jail or have a record as I am just the lost, depressed, hurt woman who has made a few poor choices, basically trying to end my life because I can’t take pain and hurt anymore … I have lost a lot over the last three years including my will, it seems. I don’t want to be this judged person anymore. I just need some help and I am not usually one to ask for help, but I want to be me again. I am sorry and thank you for listening, and I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you for your time. Shannon.”

    That message set things in motion, and today McCarty has been sober for 10 months. Along the way Yarkut has helped her navigate sobriety, connecting McCarty with community resources like a local bus pass. 

    Yarkut said that success stories like McCarty’s show that community policing can have a big impact on helping people stay sober. Since the Community Outreach and Enforcement Team was founded in 2016, it has helped the department connect with people struggling with substance abuse, rather than just arresting them. 

    “The idea behind our team was to really focus on that outreach piece because just continually putting people in jail, putting people in jail, putting people in jail and having them come out and repeat that cycle of their drug use, that’s not doing anything for them,” Yarkut said. 

    The interaction between Yarkut and McCarty shows how a different approach to policing addiction can work. Yarkut first met McCarty when someone called the police because McCarty was shooting up in a car. But instead of arresting her, Yarkut opened a door. 

    “I explained who I was and what my role in the police department was,” Yarkut said. ”[I] said, ‘Hey, if there’s something that we can do for you—because I think there are things that we can do for you, that we can help you—give me a call.”

    Today, McCarty is a far cry from the skinny and pale woman who Yarkut met that first night. 

    “She looks healthy,” Yarkut said. “She has a big old smile on her face. You can just see in her face what a changed person she is, and it’s pretty awesome.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Massachusetts Mental Health Court Serves As Alternative To Jail Time

    Massachusetts Mental Health Court Serves As Alternative To Jail Time

    The Recovery with Justice program was established by a local judge who believes jail is not always the answer.

    Nearly one-fifth of prisoners have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder. This fact has pushed one Massachusetts judge to take action. 

    Kathleen Coffey, a judge in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, is hoping to change the way these individuals receive treatment through a program called Recovery with Justice.  

    Coffey, who serves as the Specialty Courts Director for the Boston Municipal Court, created the program hoping to help those with mental health and other developmental disorders with an alternative to jail time. 

    “Many people end up in the criminal justice system because other systems have failed them and the social safety net has failed them,” Coffey told Boston 25 News. “Often times, mental illness has not been flagged, or has not been identified as a contributing factor.” 

    According to the mental health court’s official webpage, the program “is a specialized court session that helps defendants maintain stability, achieve recovery and avoid incarceration by providing intensive social services and mental health treatment.”

    Those in the program must take part in community-based treatment for at least three months and will be reviewed by a court team. In each case, a probation officer works alongside a mental health clinician to identify the needs of each individual. Based on those needs, a specific plan is created. This plan may include treatment referrals and opportunities for housing, education and employment. 

    The recipient of one such plan, Mario Torres, tells Boston 25 News that he has been in and out of jail for a total of 20 to 25 years throughout his life. He says that going to mental health court is a way of talking through his struggles, almost like therapy. 

    “Judge Coffey is pretty understanding about my addiction,” Torres said. “I had a drug problem in my past… constantly into trouble and getting arrested.” 

    “I look back and I have thrown my life out the window,” he added.

    Torres hopes that being a part of Recovery with Justice will help him get his life on track for good.

    “I want to be a productive member to society,” Torres said.

    Throughout Massachusetts, Boston 25 News reports, there are currently seven mental health courts. At the one in West Roxbury, more than 200 people have been admitted.

    “We are keeping good people out of jail and within the community, recognizing that is what the court system is supposed to do,” Coffey said. “We are supposed to be here to help people.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Drug Court Helped Man Turn Life Around

    Drug Court Helped Man Turn Life Around

    After struggling with drug addiction, a Missouri man was able to change his life with the help of a drug court program.

    A year ago, Casey Barbero was using drugs and getting into fights, a pattern that had defined more than half his life. When an argument with his father turned physical and the police were called, Barbero was ready to surrender.

    “I just sat there and waited for the police with the drugs on me. I knew it was the right thing to do. It was the right time,” he told The Missourian. Instead of being sent to jail, Barbero agreed to attend drug court, a program that connects people with treatment and jobs in an attempt to help them stay sober and out of jail.

    Nine months later, Barbero is the type of success story that the more than 3,000 drug courts around the country strive toward. 

    “He made up his mind from the get-go, ‘This is what I want, I want a different path in life.’ And he’s done that,” said Felecia Jackson-Qualls, a recruiter for Job Point, an organization that works with the Missouri drug courts to help people find employment. 

    Jackson-Qualls said that Barbero’s progress is inspirational and shows what can happen when the justice system opens doors rather than closing them for people who have struggled with substance use disorder. 

    “It brings tears to my eyes because I’m seeing where he’s coming from. And I see where he’s got to. When you see someone go through those different steps and those hurdles and you see them advancing, then we know we’re doing a good job. That makes all the difference in the world to me,” she said. 

    Barbero said that he’s eager to not even think about drugs, but for now he has to confront his substance use disorder each week when he reports on his progress in front of the court. 

    He said, “I pretty much am there now. I am reminded of it because I have to be for drug court. It’s good to remember, but I definitely don’t need to dwell on it.”

    Barbero now works in construction, and has dreams of owning a home and starting a family, things that seemed far away when he was in active addiction. 

    “I want to be in a place where I firmly know what I am, what are my goals for the future and my future plans. Right now, I have a good idea,” he said. 

    Although some people balk at the strict drug court program, Barbero said that the guidance and work requirements have been helpful. 

    “It’s better to be doing that than the stuff I was doing. I’m taking all that time I did waste and learning about things I’m interested in doing.”

    View the original article at thefix.com