AG Beshear tours Kenton County Detention Center, speaks with inmates in drug treatment program

By Mark Hansel, NKyTribune managing editor – 

Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear was at the Kenton County Detention Center last week to get a firsthand look at an innovative drug program aimed at treating inmates during incarceration.

In July of 2015, Jason Merrick was named Director of Inmate Addiction Services at the Kenton County Detention Center. On Sept. 1 of that year, under the direction of Jailer Terry Carl, he launched a treatment program that could house 70 men and 30 women at the Detention Center.

It seems like a no-brainer to offer treatment for those who are addicted during incarceration. For years, however,  inmates served their time, often continuing to feed their addiction while incarcerated, before being returned to the same environment that led them to jail in the first place.

Carl and Merrick have been working for three years to change that.

Merrick took time before a tour of the facility to provide Beshear with an overview of the program.

“In Sept 2015, we really took into consideration that we kind of need to meet these clients where they’re at,” Merrick said. “Considering that their circumstances are dire, they are in our custody, they are in here on a substance-use, directly-related charge and we’ve really got to start to provide more comprehensive, holistic services.”

Merrick sees detention centers as the default treatment center, detox center and health center for inmates and says they have been since jails were invented.

“Northern Kentucky is the largest provider in the state with more than 6,000 beds,” Merrick said. “We are happy to be providing services, not only to our state inmates, but also our county clients, hopefully, intervening before they get into the state system. If they come in here on a misdemeanor, or a felony charge that maybe can be reduced down and we can hopefully get them the help and the care that they need before they go back out and re-offend.”

University of Kentucky does an in-depth analysis of programs across the state called the Kentucky Criminal Justice Treatment Outcome Study and Merrick said it is a useful tool to track progress.

“It highlights several data points that I think are important to this work and especially this population.” Merrick said. “Fifty-six percent of our clients who complete are not re-incarcerated within 12 months after their release. Over 80 percent of them are employed at least part-time and 70 percent are back with their families.”

A cost-offset analysis is also part of the study and it indicates that for every dollar the Kenton County Detention Center spends, there is a $4.50 offset for the state of Kentucky.

“The work speaks for itself, it’s the right thing to do from a humanitarian perspective, it’s the right thing to do fiscally and it’s the right thing to do to try to get folks back with their families,” Merrick said.

Carl said it was critical to have people with practical experience dealing with addiction, as well as those with clinical credentials and Merrick fits that bill.

“I’m not ashamed or afraid to admit that I’m a person in long-term recovery,” Merrick said. “A lot of our staff here is in recovery. It’s not a prerequisite by any means, but it helps to build that credibility with the client.”

Capacity of the program is currently at 125 people that are in treatment and it is always full. That includes 35 females and 90 males, 20 of which are state prisoners.

Of those, 85 percent are incarcerated because of some kind of substance use-related issue, which didn’t surprise Beshear.

“What we have seen from the prosecution side is all property crime now is driven by addiction and drugs,” Beshear said.

Beshear’s tour of the facility began in the dorm reserved for men in the treatment program and moved to a classroom, where a group of inmates, called clients, candidly shared their stories.

The discussion was similar to a group therapy session where the clients gave their name, told what they were being treated for and shared why they joined the program

Gary White, who described himself as an alcoholic, has been in the program for eight months and has become a mentor in the program.

“It taught me how to take charge of my life and help somebody else,” White said. “The program really helped me to help other people, so they won’t have to deal with 30 years of addiction.”

James Thomas is an addict who said the program has taught him to change his lifestyle.

“I’ve learned nothing but stuff about myself, how I need to change my thinking patterns and my behaviors,” Thomas said. “More importantly, in order for me to do that, I need to stay focused on my recovery and stay off of drugs and alcohol.”

Kenny Eva describes himself as an alcoholic, but said his addiction started with pain medication.

“It started with Percocet, and then it went to Oxycontin,” Eva said. “It just progressed – the more I went to the doctor, the more they prescribed. I found myself where I needed the medication to maintain my life at work and everywhere else and then it gets harder and harder to maintain a normal life when you are taking medication.”

Doctors first cut Eva’s dosage and eventually stopped prescribing the medication altogether.

He says he knew he had a problem when he started hiding from people he cared about. He knew he was doing wrong and just continue to run and to stay away from the people who could help because he was ashamed of what he was doing.

“You find yourself in a situation where you are going outside of your doctor’s appointments to maintain, then you find yourself in a place like this, as I did,” Eva said. “Sometimes it unhealthy when you’re sobering up and you are coming back to reality. I had the opportunity to come over here and it’s really taught me a lot, I didn’t think about recovery before this.”

Beshear told the inmates that they are part of a scourge that has gripped the state and the nation.

“You all know, as you look around, in our state we have so many people suffering from addiction,” Beshear said. “We are at a place in our time where, if we don’t do better it’s going to overwhelm us.”

He asked the men what they thought the state could do to better fight the problem

White said more programs like the one in the Kenton County Detention Center would be a big help.

“If I had one of these in ’96, when I first went to jail, I don’t think it would have got this far,” White said. “In and out, in and out and my addiction got to the point where I no longer cared about nobody but myself, using crack cocaine, heroin, any kind of drugs I could get.”

Beshear said after the tour that it is critically important to hear the individual stories of addiction.

“If we don’t listen, then we don’t fully understand all of the challenges we have to address, from treatment to recovery, to getting that first good job when you are out, to having the opportunity,” Beshear said. “As we heard today, (people in recovery) need to be surrounded by a community that is supportive, as opposed to the same community that led to addiction in the first place. These stories are absolutely necessary, if we are going to address this drug epidemic.”

Carl said Kenton County’s goal is to continue the program as long as addiction is an issue in the region.

“On our end, we’re going to complete our mission one way or the other, so anytime we can get some buy-in, it just helps this program,” Carl said.

“You’ve got it from me,” Beshear said. “You are doing amazing work.”

The Kenton County Detention Center also recently received a significant boost from the U. S. Department of Justice to continue its work.

In March, it launched a long-awaited Overdose Prevention and Pre-Arrest Diversion Project. The project is funded by a three-year, $300,000 grant through the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Department of Justice.

Over the three-year grant term, the project, led by Merrick, will study the impact overdose prevention and pre-arrest diversion programs are having on Northern Kentucky communities.

It will also incentivize overdose prevention and pre-arrest diversion programs in the region and propagate and support new and existing programs throughout Northern Kentucky.

Contact Mark Hansel at [email protected]