Two Sheriff’s Office programs for inmates to be expanded
Thanks to two “pots” of money that Sarasota County will receive from what is being called a “global settlement” of litigation regarding opioid production and distribution, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office will be able to expand two programs already underway in the jail.
Moreover, the County Commission on July 10 took a formal vote to put in place a permanent program that builds on a three-year trial initiative to treat low-level, non-violent male offenders with mental health and substance abuse problems.
The overarching goal is jail diversion: helping people convicted of crimes as a result of drug abuse and behavioral issues to overcome those problems and reintegrate successfully into society. For years, Sarasota County Sheriff’s representatives have worked to forestall the need for a new, $100-million-plus jail because of overcrowding in the facility in downtown Sarasota.
As Chuck Henry, director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, explained to the commission in May, the county over the next 18 years is expected to receive money dedicated to Florida’s counties, as well as funding that will go into a “regional pot,” for use in local government programs involving opioid and substance abuse, education, treatment, prevention and related programs and services.
He cautioned that the funds are projected to decline over the period they will be received.
On July 10, Kimberly Kutch, manager of health and human services, stressed to the commissioners that the money “cannot supplement any current funding services.”
As a result of a commission request on May 22, Kutch provided a list of recommendations for uses of the county and regional money for the 2025 fiscal year, which will begin on Oct. 1.
Sarasota County has received its share out of the “city/county pot” for both the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, she noted. The total was $1,340,458.23. For the 2025 fiscal year, the figure expected is to be $513,597.17, a chart said. By the 18th year, the amount is anticipated to fall to $172,729.80, the chart showed. The total county allocation has been put at $8,319,899.82.
The regional allocation to Sarasota County for the current fiscal year, Kutch added, is $4,753,341.68.
Another chart provided in the July 10 agenda packet showed that the county is anticipated to receive $2,274,629 in regional funds for the 2025 fiscal year. By the sixth fiscal year, the amount will have dropped to $1,796,142, the chart said.
A staff memo included in the July 10 agenda packet explained that the regional share of the money “will be paid to Central Florida Behavioral Health Network (CFBHN), [which] is under contract with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to manage the daily operational delivery of behavioral health services through a coordinated system of care and who is the ME [Managing Entity] for DCF SunCoast Region.”
The recommendations Kutch reported on during the July 10 commission meeting — from county staff and the Sheriff’s Office — won unanimous approval on a motion made by Commissioner Ron Cutsinger, seconded by Commissioner Joe Neunder.
Before the vote, Commissioner Mark Smith did remind his colleagues that “this is a limited time offer.” Future commissions will have to find the funds to continue the programs after the settlement money is gone, he added.
Nonetheless, Smith said of the settlement funds coming to the county, “It’s money well spent to try to correct the wrongs in the past …”
The approved programs
These are the plans for the funds:
- $434,000 will be spent to expand the Sheriff Office’s Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) services in the jail, including the hiring of extra staff members — a nurse among them — and coverage of medication costs. An extra 25 clients are expected to be served, Kutch said.
A Sheriff’s Office document in the July 10 agenda packet said that MAT has been treating an average of 20 to 25 clients a year, the document reported.
That also quoted the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in explaining, “[R]esearch shows that a combination of medication and therapy can successfully treat substance use disorders (SUD), and for some people, medications can help sustain recovery.”
Additionally, the Sheriff’s Office staff wrote, “Medications are also used to prevent or reduce opioid overdose.”
The nurse who would be hired would dispense medication, assess medication management, make recommendations for treatment “depending on patients’ phase of recovery,” manage the MAT client registry and coordinate care with outside providers, the document explained.
The expense for the nurse alone would be $160,000, the document pointed out. Adding a proposed certified addiction counselor to the program would cost $134,000, it said. The counselor “would facilitate various essential services, including assessments, individualized service planning, monitoring, and direct counseling for those on MAT” and those already in the Sheriff’s Office’s recovery and CARE pods, the document noted.
The Sheriff’s Office explains on its website, “The Collaborative Approach to Reintegration through Education (C.A.R.E.) Pod was created out of necessities identified by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and other community partners. C.A.R.E. provides individuals with chronic and persistent mental health conditions an environment conducive to reintegration into society. C.A.R.E. focuses on medication compliance, healthy coping strategies, and effective communication skills. Licensed Mental Health Counselors meet with residents regularly to conduct group counseling and provide individualized treatment sessions.”
- The Sheriff’s Office’s Reentry Navigator Program will be expanded, as well, with an allocation of $209,818.87.
In regard to that program, the Sheriff’s Office website says the following: “The reentry navigators assist soon-to-be released individuals in their personal journey towards reentry and/or recovery by helping to decrease and eliminate reentry barriers which can include housing, employment, and transportation. Once released, individuals work with the navigators to ensure their initial basic needs are met. In addition, the reentry navigators provide advocacy, guidance, motivation, and knowledge.”
- Replacing the Community Offender Rehabilitative Treatment (CORT) pilot program with the Rehabilitation, Education, and Support Toward Offender Reintegration Jail Diversion Treatment Program (RESTORE). That will be “a new, expansion program designed for low-level, felony male inmates of the Sarasota County jail, ages 18 and older, who present with a history of opioid, substance abuse or co-occurring disorders, which are chronic in nature and warrant a residential structure to promote lifestyle changes and recovery,” another document in the July 10 agenda packet pointed out. “Priority placement will be given to inmates suffering from opioid use disorders,” the document added.
Further, it said, “The RESTORE program will provide clients the opportunity to be transferred from the Sarasota County Jail (SCJ) into the program to receive holistic treatment, thereby reducing their recidivism into deep-end crisis services or the criminal justice system.”
The document continued, “RESTORE clients will be housed in a secure facility, staffed with clinical and support personnel seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and 365 days per year. This 40-bed, secured, Level II residential treatment facility, operated by Lightshare Behavioral Wellness & Recovery, Inc. (Lightshare) will serve as the only residential, lock-down facility in Sarasota County for qualified inmates, offering unique services encompassing opioid and substance abuse treatment, co-occurring disorder treatment, and comprehensive wrap-around support and reentry services.”
- County retention of 5% of both the regional and county funds to cover administrative costs, as allowed by the state Memorandum of Understanding with the opioid manufacturers that governs the use of the settlement funds. The total from the regional “pot” can go up to $237,667.08, the county staff memo notes, while the maximum allowed from the regional “pot” would be $67,023.
‘Timing is everything’
Following Kutch’s presentation, Commissioner Neunder asked Sheriff’s Office Major Brian Meinberg, commander of the Courts and Corrections Division, whether he had any comments about the proposed plans for the money.
“Timing is everything,” Meinberg responded after he walked up to the podium in the Commission Chambers in downtown Sarasota.
The Sheriff’s Office launched the MAT program in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, he added. “We realized the need for it. That wasn’t something that was mandated.”
However, Meinberg continued, in April, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was modified to require that anyone who was in treatment prior to incarceration had to keep receiving treatment in the jail. Thus, Meinberg pointed out, the MAT budget was expected to increase.
He also underscored the need for the hiring of the nurse and counselor for the program.
Neunder then asked whether the Sheriff’s Office can provide generic drugs to inmates, unless a physician has specified a certain type of medication be used instead of the generic version.
Meinberg confirmed that the Sheriff’s Office does provide generic drugs to the inmates. He added that, of all the drugs that must be administered to persons in the jail, the HIV medication “is the most expensive that we dispense. Basically, that’s half of our pharmacy costs.”
In regard to another question from Neunder, regarding whether new inmates are screened for detoxification needs, Meinberg explained that a nurse handles that process, asking “pointed questions.”
“The arrestees have to tell us honestly what their issues are,” Meinberg stressed. Otherwise, jail personnel have no way of knowing their situations.
If the nurse deems it appropriate, he added, the individual is taken to the detox unit on the jail’s top floor. Typically, Meinberg said, it takes three to seven days for the detox program to run its course. Then staff members with the MAT program review each situation, to determine whether the inmate should be part of MAT.
Reporting requirements for the funding
During her presentation, Kutch did note a list of requirements linked to use of the county and regional funds. Among them, she said, the county will have to report to the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) before July 1 each year on how it intends to use the money it will receive in the upcoming fiscal year.
For the county, each new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
Then Kutch continued, no later than Aug. 31 each year, the county will have to report to DCF how it did end up spending the proceeds the previous fiscal year.
Further, she pointed out, county staff will have to ensure that an annual evaluation is conducted of the procedures and activities involving the expenditures, to make certain they comply with the state direction for the money. The latter is called the Florida Plan.