Creating Access to Therapeutic, Re-entry, and Recovery Support Services in Ingham County Criminal Justice Systems

Ingham County, Michigan seeks funding for the project entitled “Creating Access to Therapeutic, Re-Entry, and Recovery Support Services in Ingham County Criminal Justice Systems.” Situated in the center of Michigan’s lower peninsula with a population of 284,900, Ingham County includes rural, suburban, and urban communities, notably including Michigan’s capital city of Lansing. Since 2011, opioid and/or stimulant-related overdoses have claimed the lives of more than 900 Ingham County residents, with the County having the fourth-highest 5-year average fatal overdose rate per 100,000 people in Michigan. This project intends to enhance current prevention and treatment efforts by standing up a collaborative, multi-disciplinary Release Coordination Team within the Ingham County Jail that will provide comprehensive substance use disorder screenings, service assessments, referrals, navigation support and transfers to appropriate settings during pre-booking, booking, pre-trial, sentencing, incarceration, release and/or re-entry. The goal is to create access to therapeutic, re-entry, and recovery supports within Ingham County criminal justice systems. To this end, this project will support naloxone training and distribution to 300 staff in the jail, police departments, courts, fire departments, emergency medical services, and prosecutorial offices; provision of medication-assisted treatment services to 900 people at the Ingham County Jail; and placement of a total of 10 social workers, peer recovery coaches and/or others with lived experiences at critical points of the County’s Sequential Intercept Model. The Ingham County Sheriff Office will act as central coordinator of Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program activities with subrecipients including the Community Mental Health Authority of Clinton-Eaton-Ingham Counties to coordinate case management services and Wayne State University Center for Behavioral Health and Justice serving as external evaluator for the project.