WSNIA - The Educator

INFORMATION ♦ EDUCATION ♦ ENFORCEMENT

THE EDUCATOR - Spring 2002

R-Stop Works

by Sharon Werst, R-STOP Counselor

R-STOP is the acronym for Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Offender Program. This is a federally funded program granted to Walla Walla County in September 1999.

This program is unique because of many issues, one of which is the support it has received from the various agencies that contract with the program i.e. Inland Counseling Network for mental health issues, Walla Walla Health Department, Children’s Home Society, Community Corrections, law enforcement, Lourdes Counseling Center (who supplies the R-STOP facilitator and the aftercare portion of the program,) Human Services (who monitors the program and takes an active role in making the inmates’ transition into society smoother,) and Walla Walla County Jail where the program is located.

The program begins with ten (10) weeks of residential alcohol/drug treatment. The treatment addresses the chemical dependency issues, the anti-social personality traits/disorders and criminal personality traits. A master problem list for chemical dependency is present in all treatment facilities, but R-STOP has added another master problem list that address the seven (7) life dominions or areas of life that the inmate has problems functioning within, i.e. lack of housing, poor dental and/or medical care, problems with spouse and/or children, hygiene, etc.

The life skill plan, which focuses on the seven (7) life domains, is addressed one time monthly at a Team meeting where all agencies contracting with the program meet with the client and the client’s family or support system and each problem is discussed and recommendations for solving the problems are suggested. The inmate is encouraged to bring to the Team’s attention any new problems or concerns.

Following the first ten (10) weeks of treatment, partial confinement, which is also ten (10) weeks, begins. During partial confinement, the inmate is to complete his GED, if he hasn’t completed school, seek work, attend aftercare, keep all appointments with the various agencies he is involved with, and attend Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Narcotics Anonymous. He also receives Sunday as a day to reconnect with his family in the community.

Most of the inmates are IV drug users with methamphetamine as their drug of choice. Many enter the program as a way to reduce their sentences, however within two to three weeks of treatment they are fully participating in their own recovery. This change in attitude can be greatly attributed to the therapeutic community in which they reside.

When an inmate enters the program, he signs an agreement to participate in the program for up to two (2) years, meaning that he will attend Team meetings and be monitored by the Team for progress in his life dominions. He is also told that when he is released following the twenty (20)-week program that his remaining time is suspended and “held over his head.” Should he relapse, he either comes back into the program for that suspended time, or serves his original sentence in its entirety. While in the R-STOP program, the inmates are housed separately from other inmates. They are not allowed to speak to, gesture to, or communicate with any inmate not in the program. If anyone breaks this rule or any of the other R-STOP or jail rules, the entire group is put in sanction. This allows the inmates to assume responsibility of their own actions and to monitor the actions of other group members.

Methamphetamine users have the highest rate of relapse of all the program participants, yet many share in group before release that they, “will stay clean” and that, “It won’t be that hard for me, I’ve made up my mind.” The truth is “methamphetamine is easily accessible,” and the recovering person is usually offered the drug on his first day of partial confinement. Most participants will turn it down, because they know they can be given a urine analysis when they return to the jail. Two inmates chose to use and went on a drug binge instead of returning to the jail. One is currently in prison and the other is awaiting trial.

Because of the high relapse potential for methamphetamine users, the program has a built in relapse policy, which states that once a relapse occurs, the program must be retaken, which means another twenty (20) weeks in treatment and in partial. After the first relapse, further programming is determined on an individual basis. The factors looked at for reentry into the program are: did the person use his natural resources; the length of sobriety; Team meeting attendance; and outstanding circumstances i.e. death in the family etc.

At present, the success rate of the program is over 50%. Only two people have received new charges since entering the program—one for escape while on partial confinement and another for forgery while on a heroin and methamphetamine binge. Not bad odds for the two (2) years the program has been in operation. The remainder of those who have returned to jail are for probation violations for drug and/or alcohol use and not paying restitution and/or fines.