Lack of space limits recovery, mental health services

WOOSTER — He’s nearly 30 years old and has been in and out of jail his whole adult life.

But now Steve (who asked that his real name not be used) is in recovery housing and hoping to make a fresh start, one that sticks.

He’s been in and out of jail “in the double digits,” he said, but the last stay was different. “I’m getting older and I’m ready for a change,” he said. “I’m ready for something new.”

Steve’s story isn’t all that much different from Cory Miller’s. Miller, too, is in recovery housing after serving time in the Wayne County Jail. This sentence marked the eighth instance he served time.

He hopes it will be the last. The difference, he said, is “the fact I just want it this time.”

And while both men agree that serving time in the Wayne County Jail can be trying, they also credit the facility and its services for getting them the help they needed to get out of the drug culture and into a clean, law-abiding existence.

Of the 6,585 Wayne County Jail bookings in 2017 and 2018, 1,293 involved drug-related offenses. And for those convicted of those types of crimes, there often is a stipulation to complete one of the jail’s addiction or mental health programs. Others go voluntarily. Studies have shown, said OneEighty executive director Bobbi Douglas, that “how they come in (to a program) is not that critical,” once they begin.

Steve, who had warrants out for his arrest, turned himself in at the jail.

“This last time,” he said, “I knew I was going to be in for a long time and I wanted to make the best of the time I had there.”

So he, like Miller, went into the Chemical Addiction/?Dependency, Education and Therapy program. Offered through OneEighty, the CADET program is the equivalent of an intensive outpatient program and is offered in the jail two hours a day, four days a week. It is one of many services offered to inmates through the local social services network.

There are others, like a life skill group offered two mornings a week and facilitated by Anazao Community Partners. “It’s really like thinking for change,” said Anazao adult services director K. Michelle Kelly, “challenging those thoughts that got them into jail.”

Getting inmates, many of whom have chemical abuse and mental health issues, the help that they need comes in the many forms — support groups, cognitive behavioral treatment and restructuring, mental health case management, crisis assessment, re-entry case management and counseling and chaplaincy services.

The only limit to what the agencies can do: space.

“We’re all kind of competing for room space,” Kelly said. “There’s a lot of coordination with OneEighty and the Counseling Center (of Wayne and Holmes Counties).”

The two small classrooms available in the jail only accommodate a few people and have, at times, been used for temporary sleeping space during high-occupancy periods.

Ideally, Kelly said, there would be adequate space for more chemical abuse intervention, for parenting classes, family services and individual counseling.

Those services are offered outside the jail’s walls, but there’s a reason the Wayne County Jail offers them, too.

“Sometimes,” said OneEighty’s Douglas, “jail is safer” for people with abuse or mental health issues. And there are times, OneEighty outpatient services manager Cheryl Thomas said, “I think the families, some feel relieved (that a family member) is there” and out of harm’s way.

Anazao executive director Mark Woods said that being in jail can be a motivating factor in whether or not a person gets help.

“Some people who need treatment, need jail to support that,” he said. “A lot come because they’re bored,” but end up realizing the benefit of the program they choose to participate in.

Completing the CADET program and a cognitive behavior therapy program were part of the terms of Miller’s sentence, but he said he asked the judge in his case to order him to Pathway House on Beall Avenue to continue his rehab services. “If I just left jail and went back to the streets, I’m going to start using again,” he told the judge.

But Miller’s release date was on a Sunday and Pathway does intakes on Friday. So, the judge moved Miller’s release date to accommodate a smooth transition from one facility to another. He’s been there since mid-April, and has secured employment, goes to intensive outpatient therapy at OneEighty three times a week and attends group meetings every day.

“If I wouldn’t have gotten into CADET, I probably wouldn’t have gone to Pathway,” Miller said. “I would have been on the street.”

Agencies have in recent years been making more use of peer support in treatment and therapy. Miller had a peer counselor waiting for him when he left the jail; Steve was met there by his mother and a counselor.

Steve was scheduled to be released 30 days earlier after having served as a jail trustee, but got out an additional 18 days in advance because of jail overcrowding. He’s been living in a recovery house for three weeks and hopes to stay longer while he looks for a job.

Steve admitted the courts “had given me multiple chances” to get help for his drug issues, which he said were born out of unresolved childhood trauma, before putting him in jail. “It’s boring; the food sucks,” he said of incarceration, “but I’m glad I was there” and got the chance to get help while completing his sentence.

“If you want the help,” Steve said of the jail, “it’s there, for sure.”

Reporter Tami Mosser can be reached at 330-287-1655 or tmosser@the-daily-record.com.

CREDIT: TAMI MOSSER