"A program that keeps homeless people out of jail for petty crimes has saved Tucson $3.8 million in jail costs since 2000"

Nashville has a mental health court and it works fairly well.  I'm not certain that anyone has tracked overall savings to the city as a result of moving people through this court versus traditional court, but anytime we can provide alternatives to jail we almost always save money.  

That may change, however.  In a recent conversation I had with Commander Damian Huggins from Metro PD, he argued that jail sentences ought to be longer rather than shorter in order to assist in the detoxing and referral of individuals to appropriate agencies.  He believes that because our current laws have no real deterrent effect, we must find a way to hold folks longer in order for them to sober up and receive treatment.

Judge Eisenstein had about the best idea yet for those convicted of drug and alcohol-related offenses; a stay at the Guest House with drug and alcohol counseling under threat of incarceration if they leave before they've completed their time.  

I don't believe that "gunbarrel rehab" works very well; anecdotally speaking, I can tell you it never worked for me.  Let me give you another example of just how powerful addiction is:

Leeann is a 26 year old female who is addicted to narcotic painkillers.  She's done a real number on her family while feeding this addiction, stealing over $50,000 from her grandparents and forcing them to lose their home, destroying her parent's relationship and seriously damaging her mother's second marriage, and alienating her brothers, sisters and extended family.  She has prostituted for her dope money, has contracted Hep C and who knows what else, and has been beaten, raped, stabbed and beaten some more.  

She came to me about two months ago looking for some help.  I worked with her mother to get her into a methadone treatment facility but on the day she was to begin the program, her family decided they simply could not afford the $360 a month it would cost to put her into the program.  

Leeann was on her way to a very wicked "sick" as she'd run out of Diluadid the day before.  When she heard that mom wasn't going to bail her out, she decided to try a "booze kick."  Booze doesn't work to stop the withdrawals and frankly, it adds to the overall misery factor by creating another form of sickness within the body the following day. 

Regardless, the desperation to stop the physical withdrawal symptoms was and is so great that Leeann went to a local bar and began drinking.  

After several hours she was 86'd from the bar and began walking drunkenly down a very busy street here in Nashville.  Within minutes she was struck by a speeding car, sending her into oncoming traffic where she was hit again.

Her injuries were substantial and damned near killed her.  The Doctor stated that if she hadn't been drunk she almost certainly would have been killed but the alcohol caused her to fly and land like a rag doll, lessening the extent of her injuries.

She spent about two weeks in a coma at a local hospital and was detoxed from her narcotic addiction as she lay unconscious.  

After she awakened, she was, according to her mother, a "completely different person." She swore off drugs, wanted to get her life back on track and began attending church.

Upon being discharged from the hospital, the physician prescribed her Lortab - yes, you read that right, LORTAB - a narcotic pain killer that is so abused by us dopefiends that only a complete idiot would even consider giving a single tablet to any of us.  

Leeann went home to her mothers - the first time she'd been allowed back into the house since she burned her grandparents for their entire retirement savings - and within two days had a huge fight with her mother's husband over her Lortabs.  

She ended up back on the street and we intervened, securing her a place in a local rehab facility.  

She was set to obtain housing tomorrow and I called to notify the fine folks at this agency that I would be coming to pick her up in order to take her to her new residence tomorrow at 1pm.  

The nurse at the agency told me, " Ms. Doe is no longer here.  She had an altercation with another resident on Saturday, left the facility and returned three hours later in a car, obviously intoxicated and waving two '40s' out the window while screaming obscenities at the staff and residents." 

If being almost killed because you were too drunk to watch where you were walking doesn't break you of your addiction, I seriously doubt it will matter whether you spend two days, two weeks, two months or two years behind bars.....

Tucson saves money by not locking up some homeless

Reported by: Associated Press Last Update: 9/29 5:14 am

 

A program that keeps homeless people out of jail for petty crimes has saved Tucson $3.8 million in jail costs since 2000, a city official said.

Tucson city Magistrate Michael Lex told caseworkers and others who work with the homeless how the program works during the Tucson Planning Council for the Homeless annual conference last month.

Lex created what he said was Arizona's first mental health court to help the homeless get services to help them avoid arrests and jail time.

The city court's homeless program has resulted in 31,777 charges dismissed since the program began in 2000.

Those charges represent 13,363 court dockets and nearly 6,000 individuals whose charges were thrown out after they completed a diversion program tailored to their needs.

Lex said sending homeless people to jail over and over again for petty crimes like urinating in public, trespassing and panhandling amounts to a life term on the installment plan. "It just doesn't work," he said.

After seeing the same people over and over again, Lex said he realized the mentally ill were very poorly served by the (criminal justice) system.