An effort to change the way our judicial system deals with the devastation of the growing national opioid problem has led to a new way of approaching it in the courts—an implementation of a judicially supervised path to treatment and recovery rather than traditional punishment.
The American Society of Addiction Medicine cited that by 2013, drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death, greater than car accidents and homicides—about 8,200 Americans die each year from heroin overdoses.
Kent County faces its own opioid issue, and it’s severe, but between the State’s Attorney office and the Kent County Health Department, an innovative pilot program, modeled after other successful partnerships between the judicial system and mental health services, is now being used to offer drug offenders a pathway to recovery rather than jail or prison.
Called “PAST” (Post Adjudication Supervision and Treatment) it works via a direct partnership between Kent County Court and the County Behavioral Health Department. If the drug offender is eligible for the program—there are guidelines—he or she may accept the recovery programs and services offered by the Health Department’s Whitsitt Center, thereby suspending a conviction for the charge. Upon completion of the program, which can take up a to a year of supervision and recovery-oriented programs, the conviction will remain suspended.
Nationwide, the so- called “drug courts” are showing a remarkable statistical success. Recidivism has been reduced more the 20%, state and financial burdens for criminal trials are being reduced and benefits are experienced on all fronts, from personal recovery health to positivr impacts on family, society at large, and even the financial burden of the criminalization and incarceration process.
Here Tim Dove, Director of Outpatient Services at Kent County Health Department (seated on left) and new State’s Attorney Harris P. Murphy, discuss opioid addiction in our area and how the PATH Program seeks to be part of the solution for all of us.
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