In the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. war on drugs spiked the number of mass incarcerations by increasing convictions for nonviolent drug offenses.
In fact, the incarceration rate rose by 1,216%.
“That spearheaded our mass incarceration rate, which continues to plague our country,” says Heather Dunn, DSW, LCSW.
This issue inspired Dunn to examine ways to break the high recidivism rate for incarcerated people who are suffering from mental health issues and other life challenges. She leads the NASW Specialty Practice Sections webinar “Social Work with the Incarcerated Population—A Jail Bridge Program.” It is available here.
Dunn, a behavioral health manager at Kaiser Permanente, works in collaboration with the Sonoma County Jail in Santa Rosa, Calif., to help build a bridge in mental health treatment programs in post incarceration.
Inmates who have mild to moderate levels of behavioral health needs are not provided with adequate behavioral health treatment in the jail and are not provided with discharge planning, which includes links to behavioral health treatment in the community, Dunn said.
The recidivism rate in the jail system is high. “I wanted to focus on (helping) people sooner, before they commit crimes that lead them into the prison system,” she said.
“I volunteered per diem shifts in our jail,” Dunn said. “What I saw was people coming in and out of the jail system struggling with mental health diagnoses and struggling with this comorbidity of substance abuse.”
Dunn interviewed inmates, jail staff and directors. She discovered most incarcerated individuals fail to receive help or resources when they are released.
As part of her DSW research, Dunn found the jail houses about 800 inmates daily. Forty-five percent have been diagnosed with a behavioral health condition. Of that 45%, less than half receive discharge planning.
“That leaves 60% being released into the community with nothing,” Dunn said. “And we are expecting them not to come back. How are we supposed to think they are not going back to the lifestyle they lived (before incarceration) without providing them alternatives?”
Dunn said she used the managed health program already in place instead of recreating a new one. “I just tweaked it a little bit to help them bridge it with the jail system,” she said.
The program looks like this: “I call it a bridge because I am focusing on individuals who are being released to treatment with resources out in the community,” Dunn explained. “I need them to be able to walk over this bridge and get to those resources.”
The pilot program has made a difference. Members who participated and linked into community services and behavioral health services had no new arrests for six months, she said.
“It’s a huge win,” Dunn said. “That’s our success we are looking at in the short term.”
While the program is still being evaluated, Dunn noted that she learned some valuable lessons in addressing the needs of those incarcerated.
“Your user’s voice has to be the center,” she said, adding that getting jail staff involved also is necessary. “I had to change the way I saw this problem. Be flexible in your solution.”