PC: Fox 11 Online
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A year after launching a drug addiction treatment program in the jail, Winnebago County is seeing successful outcomes.
Like many communities, Winnebago County is dealing with a drug problem.
“We’ve seen an uptick in drug cases in general and then the property crime associated with it and then the revolving door of the same faces again and again for the same crimes due to their addiction,” said Corrections Lt. Amber Rozek.
About a year ago, with the help of grant money, the Winnebago County Jail launched MAT or the Medication Assisted Treatment program.
The voluntary program was a first step to help inmates, who were also addicts, deal with their addictions while incarcerated in hopes of setting them up for success upon release.
According to Rozek “We offer them a recovery coach to meet with, up to two times a week while they’re here at the jail. And then we offer the vivitrol which is an injectable medication that blocks the receptors from the opioids that they take and also with alcohol use.”
While the program was working, jail staff and other community members wanted to do more. That’s when the jail teamed up with Solutions Recovery to transition the MAT program into STAR.
First offered to inmates at booking, the Sobriety Treatment Assisted Recovery program is available 24/7 for whenever an inmate is ready to commit to it. Those in the program have recovery coaches available to them in the jail on a daily basis. They can make free phone calls, with no time limits, to the recovery hotline as well.
What makes the STAR program different is access to it as well as other community resources upon someone’s release from the jail.
“So, instead of getting released at 4:30 in the morning we can work with them to get a delayed release for 8am and our recovery coaches can meet them, pick them up right from jail, take them right to treatment, right to sober living, go get a cup of coffee, go to Solutions and help them kind of with that transition piece right back into the community,” said Megan Edwards from Solutions Recovery.
In its first year, nearly 400 inmates took advantage of the program. Recovery coaches had almost 2,000 in person visits in the jail. And of the 77 people who met with a recovery coach, and were transported from the jail directly to rehab, sober living or another facility – 46% are still in recovery.
“When you look at other research, bodies of research on success rates of sobriety, that is very high. So we feel really really good about that number,” added Edwards.
With the program on the right track, the jail is hoping to eventually turn one of its cell block into a recovery living unit, so inmates in recovery can continue to help one another on their journey.
Winnebago County jail officials say the STAR program is funded, with the help of grants, through 2024. But they’re committed to keep it going moving forward.
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