Dec. 21, 2021: Four county jails in Southeast Colorado (Prowers, Bent, Otero and Crowley) receive Jail Based Behavioral Health Services (JBBS) support to provides mental health, substance use, and re-entry services for incarcerated inmates. This summer, the jails partnered to open the Re-Entry Center in Lamar that serves as a space for clients to meet with the counties' shared transition services coordinator for help with referrals, sending applications to sober living programs, mental health, and substance use treatment facilities, as well as assisting them in applying for things like identification, birth certificates, Medicaid, and food assistance.
Along with therapeutic interventions while in custody, the main goal of the Re-Entry Center is to help ease many of the common barriers they face after being released from custody. Not having access to the most basic of needs, including proper identification, clothing, food, housing, and transportation, dramatically increases an individual's chances of being re-arrested, especially within the first 72 hours after their release from jail. Statistics show that two out of every three people released from American jails end up being arrested again within three years (HealthyPeople.gov., 2020). These four counties are trying to break this trend. The program’s transition services coordinator needed a place to meet with clients in Prowers County after their release from custody, to start working to eliminate those barriers.
The Re-Entry Center is also a Narcan training center for families and clients. While the Prowers County Jail does not provide Narcan to the offenders while they are in custody, staff at the Re-Entry Center may offer this potentially lifesaving medication after the client has completed Narcan use training. In addition to client support, the facility serves as a meeting space for JBBS staff and as a private place for counselors to meet confidentially with JBBS clients when the jail is not an option. As of the end of November, the Center had been the site of 103 client assessments (intakes) and 164 counseling sessions.
Learn more on the JBBS program page.