When an individual is booked into jail for actions connected to substance abuse or mental health issues, the consequences that follow can make the situation far worse for them. Absence from work, or the mere fact of being booked into jail, can cost individuals their jobs. Jail time can cause rents to become overdue, leading to evictions. Health insurance can be cancelled. When a person gets out of jail, bleak prospects can be faced. Overdue rent or an eviction notice. Unpaid bills. A pink slip from work. Many have no transportation. Especially for those with mental health and substance abuse issues, these prospects can lead them right back to jail, because they have no way of solving the seemingly insurmountable problems facing them upon their release.
The person might not have a car, and therefore has a difficult time getting to court-mandated appearances, leading to their re-arrest. Perhaps they can’t make it to their counseling sessions because of lack of transportation. Without access to other options, many reoffend, and are brought back to jail.
Sequential Intercept Mapping is a method by which members of law enforcement, mental health counselors, medical services, community services, and other community-focused organizations to communicate and create action plans to divert people off the path of recidivism and to the services they need to attempt to get back on track. By breaking down interactions with the criminal justice system into a series of stages, SIM seeks to identify “intercepts”, points at which individuals may be diverted off the path of prison or recidivism and onto the path toward a better future.
As Salem Police Chief Joe Chase put it, “Not everybody needs to be in jail, and jail isn’t the answer for everybody.”
A workshop on Sequential Intercept Mapping was held on Aug. 14 and 15 at the Salem Community Center @ The Armory in Salem. Present were members of the Dent and Crawford County Sheriff’s Offices, the Salem Police Department, Dent County Prosecutor Andrew Curley, Dent County Assistant Prosecutor James Weber, Healthy Dent County Prevention Coordinator Carlos Lopez, graduate students from St. Louis University, representatives from medical and mental health resources such as the Salem Memorial Hospital, Compass Health, Phelps County Regional Medical Center, Meramec Regional Planning Commission, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the Missouri Veterans Association, the Dent County Health Center, and Four Rivers Community Health Center.
Leading the workshop was Hon. Gary W. Lynch (retired), who is a SIM mapping Judicial Engagement Coordinator. He told The Salem News about the goals of the workshop, and the conclusions arrived at during the event, during a phone interview the following week. The Salem News did not attend the workshop, which was invite-only. Salem Police Chief Joe Chase also told about the event, and provided materials from the workshop for this article.
“It involves trying to develop additional processes and procedures to better address the needs of the mentally ill and those with substance use disorders in order to minimize their involvement with the criminal justice system,” said Lynch. “The SIM stands for Sequential Intercept Model. SIM basically breaks the criminal justice system down into six intercepts. These are critical junctures in the criminal justice process, in which if we can properly identify those with a mental illness or those with substance use disorders, there are opportunities to provide treatment to better meet their mental health and substance use disorder needs, that the criminal justice system itself cannot meet. You know, jail and prison is simply not designed to treat mental illness or substance use disorders.”
Said Chase during his interview, “It could be somebody that’s a victim of domestic violence, or somebody that’s overwhelmed with life, just a lot of things. Maybe it’s somebody that’s shoplifting, because they don’t have food. They didn’t have the knowledge or the ability to connect with DFS, or get that done in a timely enough manner.”
To Chase, SIM is a way to change a person’s “trajectory”.
“We’re trying to alleviate some of these problems in advance, what we can; And then even after the fact. Let’s say somebody does commit a crime and they do get arrested, but they’re not a threat to society or a threat to themselves, or to anybody really. They’ve committed this crime. What we attempt to do at this point is look at these intercepts and see, is there a place that we can provide an intercept that will change this person’s course? Kind of change the trajectory, so to speak, so they land somewhere else instead of the final result always being jail.”
For someone with mental health problems or a substance use disorder, being in jail can set into motion events that lead them right back in, rather than setting them on the path to recovery.
“It can make it much worse,” said Lynch. “Because the criminal justice system and that process is just not designed, it doesn’t have the capacity, to treat someone in a mental health crisis or a substance use disorder crisis. And so, the purpose of the workshop is to say OK, how do we collaborate together as a community? The behavioral health people, the healthcare folks, law enforcement, the community-helping agencies, how do we work together to better identify the population of mentally ill folks and substance use folks to get them what they need at a point that would minimize the risk of them becoming involved in the criminal justice system?”
During the workshop, Lynch said that members of various entities within Crawford and Dent counties separately identified three areas in which there are gaps in services for those with mental illness or substance abuse issues that might lead to recidivism: The need for a Jail Navigator, who would provide services to those reentering society after jail, homelessness and housing needs, and lack of transportation to services.
Said Lynch: “What we have found out is that reentry from being in jail is a very vulnerable time for those with mental illness and substance use disorders. […] And when they get out of jail, without some safety net or support, the suicide rate goes up, the chances for overdoses go up on the substance use folks, and you know, where do they go? What do they do? It just raises the chance of recidivism later on.”
A Jail Navigator would work with local services to try and ensure a smooth transition, helping plan for things like court appearances, treatment options, and more.
“What that person does, is at the moment of intake, they will do an assessment on the person, and they’ll start determining: Is there a mental health resource? And all that kind of lumps together, substance abuse; whether it be alcohol, drugs, whatever. All those things kind of fall under the same umbrella of mental health, and they start looking for avenues to where they can do things differently,” said Chase. “It’s not a soft-on-crime approach, by any means. But what it is, it’s just a way to prevent people from getting worse. Because recidivism is a huge deal, in those people that go to prison.”
The workshop facilitated communication between community services and the criminal justice system to help develop connections and action plans to be put in place when needed.
“We were pleased with the turnout. Those that came rolled up their sleeves and worked really hard. You could just tell they had a heart for their communities. […] I thought it was a very positive thing for both counties,” said Lynch. “I thought it was three great areas, and lots of good ideas, and people working to help and try and support the community.”
