Seattle COSSAP Site Based Program

This project addresses the needs of justice-involved women transitioning from prison to the community. The Seattle Police Department proposes to test a program that provides transitional housing and other services to reentering justice-involved women with substance use disorder (SUD) histories who will be returning to Seattle and adjacent locations within King County. Using a case-management approach to address women’s multiple service and treatment needs will improve reintegration and is expected to lead to better outcomes for program participants. This project meets the requirements of OBJA-2022-171280, category 1a) and responds to several of the allowable activities: law enforcement deflection and diversion (15%); use of real-time data (20%); evidence-based SUD treatment related to opioids, stimulants, and other illicit drugs MAT, harm-reduction activities, and recovery-support services (30%); and transitional or recovery housing and peer recovery-support services (35%). Despite previous and ongoing efforts to address the drug-use epidemic, relatively little has been done to specifically address the needs of justice-involved women with SUD histories who are returning to the communities after a period of incarceration. To target justice-involved women with SUD histories, the project aims to align with and enhance existing efforts by: 1)Increasing the knowledge and sensitivity of law-enforcement officers to identify and interact with justice-involved women with SUD histories in the community; 2)Establishing methods and measures for improving needs and service assessment of justice-involved women with SUD histories before release to the community and regularly across a 12-month period to capture changes in needs regarding social services and SUD treatment; 3) Providing housing for reentering women, working with WADOC on a stable housing location with associated program and education options; and 4) Coordinating programming and SUD treatment for reentering women including facilitating connections to MAT and other treatment services in the community. Partnering with the Washington Department of Corrections to provide housing, programming and other services, this project will help to fill the gaps in knowledge about this population’s needs. With a team of New York University researchers, evaluation of process and outcomes will be documented.