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HEALTH & JUSTICE IN THE NEWS
Date: May 23, 2016
TASC in the News
Medicaid enrollment in jails
Modern Healthcare, 5/21/16
Thousands of people eligible for Medicaid are leaving jails and prisons without being signed up for coverage, increasing the chances of poor health outcomes and a return to incarceration, experts say. Some local jails, including those in Chicago, Tucson, Ariz., and Albuquerque, have launched initiatives to increase the number of individuals who have Medicaid when they are released. But there are tough challenges, including poor coordination between local jail authorities and state Medicaid agencies, lack of funding to hire enrollment assisters, and chaotic conditions during jail intake, said Maureen McDonnell of the Chicago-based not-for-profit Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities. "Typically, these programs start with a motivated jail director, county commissioner or county behavioral health director who sees the writing on the wall about how many people have substance abuse and mental health conditions," said McDonnell, who advises jail officials around the country in starting Medicaid enrollment programs. "The current national focus on mental health and substance abuse is helping a lot."
Around the Nation
In Fight Against Opioid Addiction, Congress Focuses on Treatment, Not Restricting Access
Join Together | Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, 5/19/16
Congress is focusing on expanding treatment for opioid addiction instead of restricting access to painkillers in its efforts to address the opioid epidemic, The New York Times reports. The U.S. House, after overwhelmingly approving 18 bills last week aimed at addressing the nation's opioid crisis, will work with the Senate to craft compromise legislation. The bills would increase prescription drug monitoring and treatment; fund efforts to dispose of prescription drugs; and assist states that want to expand the availability of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. The Senate bill would expand the availability of medication-assisted treatment, including in criminal justice settings, and would support treatment as an alternative to incarceration.
FDA Considering Pricey Implant As Treatment For Opioid Addiction
NPR, 5/20/16
Amid a raging opioid epidemic, many doctors and families in the U.S. have been pleading for better treatment alternatives. One option now under consideration by the Food and Drug Administration is a system of implanted rods that offer controlled release of buprenorphine - a drug already used in other forms to treat opioid addiction. Because it's implanted in the skin, this version of the drug can't easily be sold on the illegal market, proponents say - a key treatment advantage. The FDA is expected to decide whether to approve the device - called Probuphine - within a week.
The myth that fewer people are going to prison
The Washington Post, 5/18/16
Even as fewer people are behind bars, the number going to prison nationally has changed little. John Pfaff, a legal scholar at Fordham University, pointed out the paradox in a series of tweets last week. While more people are being sent to prison than in 2010, the total population declined because people are serving shorter terms, partly as a result of lawmakers' efforts to reduce minimum sentences. "We've seen a decline in the total number in, and an increase in the total number passing through," Pfaff told Wonkblog. Pfaff said he was alarmed by what he found, since the data suggest that the costs of incarceration to society - losing your job, being separated from your family, having a felony on your record - could be increasing even as the imprisoned population declines. "We've been looking at it the wrong way," Pfaff said. "We need to really think more about what we should be measuring."
Program Connects People to Treatment After They Survive Opioid Overdose
Join Together | Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, 5/19/16
A New Jersey program immediately connects people to treatment after they have been revived from an opioid overdose with naloxone. Recovery specialists are contacted by hospitals participating in the program once an opioid overdose call has been dispatched. The Opioid Overdose Recovery Program is run by Barnabas Health in two New Jersey counties with high opioid overdose death rates, CBS News reports. The program works with law enforcement and healthcare providers, including five hospitals.
Around Illinois
Safe Passage Program Successful in Lee County
MyStateLine.com, 5/19/16
Lee County Sheriff John Simonton and Dixon Police Chief Danny Langloss started Safe Passage in September. Instead of throwing people with addictions into jail or back out on the streets after arresting them, they give them the option of immediate treatment. The program also welcomes individuals who request help, not just people who have been arrested. Langloss says, "When [someone who is addicted to heroin] decides they want to get help, there's that 12-24 hour window before they start withdraw[als that] they can't handle or tolerate themselves, so they're right back to using. With this program everyone we have...has been placed [into treatment] within 2-3 hours." Safe Passage partners with several rehab facilities across Illinois, including locally with Rosecrance in Rockford. So far seventy people have gone through the program. Langloss says they have had a couple of relapses that led to arrests--and one person dying of an overdose. He says. "This program is a process, and not an event. We know a lot of times it takes people suffering from heroin addictions six or seven times of treatment to get clean." The majority of people who have taken a journey through safe passage have remained in recovery. The program is keeping them out of jail, and saving taxpayers money.
Illinois To Add A Prison, As State Reconfigures Closing Kewanee Youth Center
WUIS, 5/20/16
Illinois' Department of Juvenile Justice is going forward with plans to close the Illinois Youth Center at Kewanee. Director Candice Jones said recruiting staff was difficult and national practices favor smaller regional facilities. Plus, she'd said, most of the young people sent there were from Cook County; it's better to house them nearer family. Kewanee's closer to Iowa than to Chicago. Most adults in the state's criminal justice system come from Cook County and the surrounding area too. But some could be housed in Kewanee, in the future. The Department of Corrections confirms: It will take over the facility on July 1, and repurpose it as an adult prison. No other information was available. A Corrections spokeswoman says planning's in the early stages.
What It's Like When Your Mom's In Prison (audio)
WBEZ, 5/19/16
More than 2.7 million American children have at least one parent in prison. In most cases, it's the father, but mothers make up a growing percentage of parents behind bars. Advocates say when moms from low-income communities are sent to faraway prisons, the effect on families can be devastating. In this segment, WBEZ interviews Colette Payne, a community organizer at Cabrini Green Legal Aid and a formerly incarcerated mother herself, about the push to allow mothers serving time for low-level crimes to do it in their communities instead of in prisons that are hours away from their homes.
Research, Reports, and Studies
Mass reduction of California prison population didn't cause rise in crime, two studies find
The Washington Post, 5/18/16
After California's prison population reached the crisis stage of overcrowding - with some prisons at 300 percent capacity - the state in 2011 began to parole thousands to their original counties. Within 15 months, more than 27,500 individuals in the criminal justice system had been "realigned" from state prisons to county jails or to parole in what was called "an act of mass forgiveness unprecedented in U.S. history." This led to the fear that suddenly returning thousands of formerly incarcerated people to the streets would cause a spike in crime. It hasn't happened. Two detailed studies that examined crime in California, including one released last week by the journal of the American Society of Criminology, found that when considering the patterns of crime nationally and in California between 2010 and 2014, there was little or no deviation in the crime rate after the prison downsizing.
Opinions, Editorials, and Commentary
Laura Washington: At the jail, doing something about a 'national disgrace'
Chicago Sun-Times, 5/22/16
The state mental hospitals and Chicago's neighborhood mental health clinics have cut back or closed. So [Cook County Jail] has become known as the largest mental hospital in America. In 2013, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart decided, that "if people are going to make us the largest mental health hospital in the country, we are going to be the best mental health hospital in the country." "The mentally ill have been criminalized," said Elli Montgomery, director of the Sheriff's Office of Mental Health Policy and Advocacy. Their behavior can seem "bizarre and odd." Police officers are not trained in intervention. "Around 30 percent of everyone we interviewed this morning will have self-reported to us a severe mental illness and mental health issues," she said over the jailhouse din. A few days later, Dart spoke at an "On the Table" gathering, sponsored by the Chicago Community Trust. He appealed to representatives of foundations, medical facilities and civic leaders. The criminalization of the mentally ill is "a national disgrace," Dart declared. "We need to start treating these folks the way they deserve to be treated. As someone who has an illness. And (who) needs to have help."
Bryant Jackson-Greene: 92 Percent of Illinoisans Support Criminal-Justice Reform, Poll Finds
Illinois Policy, 5/20/16
A vast majority of Illinois voters support criminal-justice reform, according to a new poll conducted by the U.S. Justice Action Network. According to the poll, "92 percent of Illinois voters - including 92 percent of Democrats, 96 percent of Republicans and 93 percent of Independents - favor reducing prison time for individuals convicted of low-risk, non-violent offenses in Illinois prisons." As an alternative, survey results show Illinois voters support using the savings from reduced incarceration to create a stronger probation and parole system... Illinois is a state especially ripe for reform. Illinois has one of the most overcrowded prison systems in the country... But with policy and legislative changes, Illinois can lower its crime rate, reduce its incarceration rate and spend more prudently on criminal justice while maintaining public safety. The key is focusing on rehabilitation, recovery and employment - not just on punishment and warehousing people behind bars.
Health & Justice in the News
is a summary of recent news stories relating to criminal justice, mental health, addiction, recovery, and related issues. It is compiled and published by TASC each Monday and Thursday.
Some headlines and text have been altered by TASC for clarity or emphasis, or to minimize discriminatory or stigmatizing language. Opinions in the articles and op-eds do not necessarily express the views of TASC or our staff or partners.
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