Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jan 2016
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2016 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Alexander Persons
Note: Alexander Persons is a social work intern at the Maryland 
Office of the Public Defender;

TREATMENT, NOT JAIL FOR ADDICTS, MENTALLY ILL

As I sat with a client I'll call Grace in Baltimore County District 
Court in Essex, I watched case after case go before the judge.

It was mostly less serious crimes: theft, possession of 
paraphernalia, driving without a license and trespassing. But all the 
cases, except for most of the traffic cases, had elements of mental 
illness and addiction, like the mother who was experiencing 
homelessness and hadn't been getting her children to school on a regular basis.

She had prior arrests of possession of a controlled dangerous 
substance and theft.

Grace, too, had been homeless and using heroin for years, after 
watching her mother do the same thing her whole life. Her mother 
sadly passed away late last winter from an overdose.

After her mother's death Grace said she lost all hope. "It was a 
death sentence for me." Grace was arrested in August of this year for 
credit card theft.

I have been a social work intern at the Maryland Office of the Public 
Defender for three months.

During this time, I have not been assigned a case that does not 
involve alcohol, prescription or illicit drugs, or mental illness.

Sometimes it is only one of these, but most times it is a combination 
of all three.

The majority of the clients have committed nonviolent crimes.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has estimated that 1.2 million 
people with mental illness are incarcerated at the local, state or 
federal level.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia 
University reports that of the more than 2.3 million people in 
American prisons and jails, more than 65 percent meet medical 
criteria for substance abuse addiction.

When you combine this with those who have histories of substance 
abuse, were under the influence when they committed a crime, 
committed it to get drug money, or were incarcerated for a drug or 
alcohol violation, this rises to 85 percent.

That is over 50 percent of incarcerated people with mental health 
issues and 85 percent with past or present substance abuse issues.

Only about 11 percent of these people receive treatment for their diseases.

These numbers don't lie. We are locking up people suffering from 
mental illness and addiction, and then not treating them. The result: 
They have a much greater chance of repeating their past mistakes, 
jails are overcrowded, and the national economy suffers.

Those of us living in the Baltimore area know that there is a 
prescription opioid and heroin epidemic that is killing people in 
unprecedented numbers.

Heroin deaths in the city have surpassed deaths from motor vehicle 
accidents and homicides.

But it of course doesn't stop at the city line. Opioid addiction and 
overdose death have risen at a frightening rate all across the state 
and all across the country.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 
from 2001through 2013 deaths from prescription opioid medications 
rose threefold, and deaths from heroin overdose rose fivefold. Close 
to 44,000 people died in 2013 from opioid drug overdoses. The 
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimates 
that 4 million people in the United State are dual-diagnosed with 
mental illness and drug/alcohol addiction.

I spoke to the court on behalf of Grace. She readily admitted she has 
a serious drug problem and that she needed help with her addiction 
and mental health issues.

In late October she had entered Powell Recovery on South Broadway and 
was almost six weeks clean that day in court. The judge heard our 
case, and he shook his head. "I don't know what to do here. I really 
don't." He adjourned her case while he thought it over and heard other cases.

There we sat, sweating it out, until the judge recalled her case over 
an hour later.

He gave her an 18-month sentence - suspended - and mandated that she 
complete the six-month program at Powell.

Grace won in court that day, but hundreds of thousands of others 
don't get the chance she got. It's past time to treat, rather than 
incarcerate, people suffering from mental illness and addiction.

It's a cheaper and more effective approach, and it treats a 
vulnerable population with the dignity they deserve.

The National Association of Drug Court Professionals reports that 75 
percent of people who complete a drug court program never see another 
set of handcuffs again.

Of those who do not, 73 percent return to prison within three years.

Unfortunately Grace relapsed - as so many recovering addicts do on 
their way to sobriety - and never got to complete the program at 
Powell; she died from a heroin overdose four days before Christmas. 
Her death is a reminder that recovery is difficult under any 
circumstances, but without treatment, it's almost impossible.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom