Pubdate: Tue, 29 Dec 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Authors: Tara Huffman and Scott Nolen
Note: Tara Huffman is director of OSI-Baltimore's Criminal and 
Juvenile Justice program. Scott Nolen is director of OSI-Baltimore's 
Drug Addiction Treatment program.

NEW BALTIMORE APPROACH TO ADDICTION

After decades of a failed war on drugs, consensus finally seems to be 
shifting toward a more sensible approach to drugs and addiction, one 
that uses a public health model as opposed to a criminal justice one.

In October, dozens of the nation's top police chiefs and prosecutors 
- - including Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis - met in 
Washington to announce a collective effort to reduce the number of 
people in prison.

The new coalition, called Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and 
Incarceration, identified four priorities, including "increasing 
alternatives to arrest and prosecution, especially mental health and 
drug treatment."

This is a great step forward and one that Open Society 
Institute-Baltimore and many others in the drug addiction treatment 
community have proposed for years.

The next steps - working out just what those alternatives to arrest 
and prosecution are and how we should implement them - will require a 
focused effort by state and local officials and behavioral health 
experts, with continued community input.

One very real alternative will be implemented in Baltimore in the 
coming months.

With grant support from OSI-Baltimore, the Baltimore Police 
Department and Behavioral Health System Baltimore, in partnership 
with other key agencies and organizations, will bring the Law 
Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program to Baltimore. Launched 
in Seattle in 2011, LEAD encourages law enforcement officers to 
direct people who would otherwise be charged with and prosecuted for 
low-level drug-related offenses into community-based services.

Unlike other diversion programs, LEAD participants are not arrested, 
allowing substance users to begin recovery without any time in jail 
or the burden of a criminal record.

Baltimore law enforcement and health professionals will pilot the 
program in a specific, high drug-traffic area of the city, expanding 
to other neighborhoods if the program has the good results expected. 
After an initial health assessment to determine their needs, 
participants will receive appropriate services to help them begin 
treatment and recovery, rebuild their lives and avoid further contact 
with the criminal justice system.

In addition, where relations between the police and the community in 
Baltimore have become so badly strained, LEAD will enable police to 
exhibit their role as public servants and assist those in need, 
thereby beginning to repair their relationship with the people they 
serve. Police officers in the targeted area will receive training to 
help them identify individuals eligible to participate in the program 
- - such as by recognizing the signs and symptoms of drug addiction - 
and learn how to use their discretion and access to resources to 
assist these individuals in finding the help they need. Training 
sessions will also help officers better understand that individuals 
struggling with substance use disorders are human beings who need 
support - not criminals who need punishment.

The Seattle LEAD Program has reduced rearrest rates among 
participants by almost 60 percent, while demonstrating that it costs 
less money to offer individuals subsidized housing, drug addiction 
treatment and job training than it does to put them in prison.

Rates of overdose and overall crime have also dropped since LEAD's 
inception. Several other cities are in various stages of developing a 
LEAD program, including Sante Fe, N.M.; Atlanta; Bangor, Maine; 
Camden, N.J.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Los Angeles; Milwaukee and 
Philadelphia. Baltimore will have the opportunity to exchange ideas 
and lessons learned with these cities and contribute to a broader 
shift nationally in how urban areas deal with drug addiction.

The uprising after the death of Freddie Gray brought to the surface 
many entrenched problems in Baltimore and presented a unique 
opportunity to address them. Rethinking law enforcement's approach to 
drugs and addiction is just one piece of the puzzle, but it's an important one.

The new national police coalition and the LEAD program are two signs 
that a critical mass of key thinkers now recognizes that the criminal 
justice system is not the place to treat addiction.

Implementing alternatives will be challenging and potentially slow 
work, but it is essential to helping our city recover from five 
decades of a failed drug war that pitted police against the community 
and denied those struggling with the disease of drug addiction the 
hope that they so desperately need.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom