#31 Lane County Jail Wellness Program: Addressing an Unmet Need

The Center Collaborative: Creative Solutions in Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice

Lane County Jail Captain Clint Riley and Sergeant Chuck Hardy, discuss:

• Programming in jail started due to a desire to improve behavior of the Adults In Custody (AIC) through teaching new skill sets to address their behavioral health conditions, and thus providing a better environment for AIC’s and staff.

• Multi-disciplinary team meets weekly to discuss the needs of the AIC’s and staff. The team can be assembled as needed for interventions.

• Wellness and socialization program provides people with privileges before they’ve earned it. They have something to look forward to, but also something to lose. “People will rise to the level of expectation you set for them.”

• There is no requirement for length of time in jail in order to participate in the program.

• Working with AIC’s in a trauma-informed capacity is a mindset, not necessarily related to credentialing.

• Providing SUD treatment and medication assisted treatment helps to make the community safer.

• Peers teaching trauma-informed pro-social cognitive skills, like how to spend time sober, conveys the power of hope to AIC’s.

• The jail levy makes the programming possible. It also increases the available jail beds, so AIC’s can be housed for the entire duration of their sentence, and can engage in the programming. The goal is a safer community, accountability, and for AIC’s to leave the jail better than how they arrived.

For more information about the intersection between criminal justice and behavioral health in Oregon, please reach out to us through our website at http://www.ocbhji.org/podcast and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OCBHJI/. We’d love to hear from you.

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