Treatment program in Vista jail shows promise

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show here about a new inmate drug treatment program in Vista Jail. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. In recent years , San Diego County jails have seen a sharp rise in overdose deaths. One recovery program in Vista is trying to change that. It offers medication assisted treatment behind bars. The approach is has existed for decades , but the fentanyl crisis is driving more jails to embrace it. San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Kelly Davis spent some time learning about that program in the Vista jail. She joins me now to talk about her reporting. Kelly , welcome.

S2: Hi , Jade. Thank you for having me.

S1: Always great to have you on. So the fentanyl crisis has really driven overdose deaths in recent years. Tell me about that timeline. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. So , you know , jails are kind of a microcosm of the larger society when it comes to drug use. So if you see , you know , people in the community dying from fentanyl overdoses , we saw similar uptake uptake in jails in between 2019 and 2022. Over a three year period , about a dozen people in San Diego jails died from from a fentanyl related overdose. And then there were hundreds of overdoses that that didn't result in deaths. Um , you know , but it was it was definitely an issue that was taking up a lot of resources. Um , you know , a lot of close calls , um , on people , you know , kind of just just barely , barely making it out alive.

S1: And what's that's where the medication assisted treatment program or Matt comes in. So how does it work ? Yeah.

S2: So , um , like you said. Yeah. Referred to in shorthand as mat. Um , it's , uh , combines an FDA approved medications. So Suboxone is probably the one that's used most often , sometimes methadone , but but most often Suboxone. And , um , that drug , uh , it binds to opiate receptors in the brain that would be normally kind of seeking , you know , the , the , the , the um , the opiate use and , and um , once they bind to the , the opiate receptors is kind of blocking off , um , the ability to , to get high off drugs , but it's also reducing cravings , reducing withdrawal symptoms. Um , and then they combine the jails and outside the jails of someone's on mat. Um , you're also getting counseling and peer support , which is really important. But the medication has been such a game changer. And one person I talked to who'd been through the program at the Vista Jail. His name is Jeff Warren , and he said with Suboxone , he said I was finally able to think clearly. My brain could focus. And so he could really , you know , work on on treatment and addressing any issues that kind of locked him into addiction. Wow.

S1: Wow.

S2: And when Kelly Martinez was elected sheriff in 2022 , she she vowed to expand access to to Matt. And the module kind of evolved from there. The Vista jail already has a module just for for vets who are incarcerated , and it's been very successful just putting people who share kind of a common , um , um , issue common things in their life. You know , putting them all in one module was very successful. So they they thought , well , we've got the room at the Vista Jail. Why not create this , this standalone module. And so it was kind of it started with five people and then grew from there. And now I think they have about max 30 people in the module at one time.

S1: And I know other jails offer medication to help with addiction. But how is this one different.

S2: It's you know , it's kind of people are , you know , it's a cohort of men. Um , it's kind of 24 over seven peer support. You're you're with other folks who are who are working through issues struggling with addiction. They have a mental health clinician who is on site , who's there , you know , for for individual therapy to to talk with them if they have any , any problems. They have classes. They have folks from Narcotics Anonymous come in , they do job training. They do art therapy. I went to see a Christmas play that they put on. And then the deputies in this module are also trained on medication assisted therapy. So they're they're really a whole different. This is something that was so important to the men I talked to who've gone through this program , is the support that they get from the deputies. It's not a us versus them. It's a like , we're all in this together and and we want to see you succeed. So just a different mindset , just a whole different feel.

S1: Um , well , the pilot program in Vista jail launched in 2023.

S2: But compare that to the larger jail population , which has a 35% recidivism rate. And I think that's pretty impressive. And the majority of people who go through the program choose to continue treatment out in the community. So , yeah , and and , you know , the folks I talked to , it's just they tell me this is this is different than than any sort of treatment they've , they've ever experienced.

S1: Well , tell me about the participants you met while covering this story.

S2: He helped start the module , um , kind of oversees it now. Um , he was just so impressive in the way he talked about addiction and talked about , um , kind of rethinking the approach to incarcerating people with addiction , and he'd educated himself on that kind of on his own , and volunteered to be one of the first deputies in the module , and has since trained other deputies on on how Matt works and and how addiction works , and I think is really changing the culture. Um , Jeff Warren , one of the program's early participants. Um , he's working full time. He's getting a bachelor's degree in psychology with an emphasis in addiction. Um , works with with other addicts , um , you know , folks in recovery. And then , uh , Eric Klein , he was about to be released when I interviewed him in December , and he talked about how different this program was , how it saved his life. And he can't wait to come back and talk to people in the module and be a success story for them.

S1: Well , well , as you said , this isn't just a medication for addiction program. It's also , you know , peer support and therapy too.

S2: You know , it's it's on site therapy. It's it's , um , kind of just a whole different looking at addiction as a chronic disease and , you know , not as a moral failure or a lack of , of willpower. Um , you know , it's helping show person what , what might trigger the need to use drugs , you know , what kind of environment might have , um , kind of , um , promoted or perpetuated addiction. And how do you get out of that environment ? Um , you know , and again , the , the Suboxone that they're on , it allows them to really focus on therapy and not have the , the cravings or the , the withdrawal symptoms kind of nagging at them constantly. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Well , you know , I want to get into it more because , you know , you touched on , um , how this model really challenges societal beliefs around addiction and punishment. Um , so I'd like to hear you talk a bit more about that. And what In what ways does does it do that ? Yeah.

S2: Um , you know , like I said , it focuses on addiction as a as a chronic disease. Um , you know , it really it shows , um , how , you know , you hear stories of people like , you got to struggle through it. You know , you got to go through withdrawal. That's going to teach you not to do drugs again. And it's far more complicated than that. Um , you know , being on drugs for a long period of time. It it changes the , your brain structure. It changes the whole , um , kind of rewards and consequences mechanism that someone who's not addicted to drugs , you know , we could say , you know , you know , like , um , I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to go down that path. I know that's going to that's going to harm me. But but once you get locked into that , that cycle of addiction , um , that's all you're focused on is , is that that reward , that , that relief you get from drugs and and so I think , Um. Yeah. Like I said , it's it's it's no longer seeing addiction as someone not having the willpower to , to recover. It's about you need these other services , um , assistance , um , support to to help you in the recovery process. Mm.

S1: Mm. Well , you know , right now , Vista jail is the only one with a medication assisted therapy program.

S2: You know , Corporal Maddox , he said he'd like to see a mat module is kind of is what they're calling mat module in every jail. It's hard to carve out , um , entire modules. Kind of. The irony is there are more people in jail right now because of prop 36 , which , um , increased penalties for people with repeat drug offenses. So more people in jail. But you got to carve out that extra space. Um , but they're working on it. There's , there's , um , you know , kind of rehabs and upgrades going on in a lot of jails right now in San Diego. And , and so I think the eye is on how to try , how to create more therapeutic spaces for people as opposed to just kind of warehousing them. Absolutely.

S1: Absolutely. Well , I've been speaking with Kelly Davis. She's a reporter on the watchdog team at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Kelly , thank you so much. Always great to have you on.

S2: Thank you.

S1: That's our show for today.

S3: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.