Less is more?

A recent article from Colorado highlights an important problem facing counties across the United States: the high cost of incarcerating individuals who, despite their undesirable behavior, pose little or no risk to public safety.

In the article service providers in Larimer County report, “there isn’t enough service capacity…to properly treat the mentally ill and substance addicted.” This dearth of services plays a role in what many experts call a “revolving door” of people suffering from mental illness or substance abuse who enter jails, stabilize, and then are released only to deteriorate when their needs are not met and ultimately end up back in jail.

This is a problematic cycle, and counties are searching for solutions. Many people believe, and this article seems to support, that infusing counties with more social services is the answer. You won’t find me complaining about enhancing resources available to community-based organizations, but I ask myself if there is something more that can be done.

The Family Justice Program is committed to ending cycles of justice involvement through the support of families and other support providers—and sometimes this means actually relying on social services less. What I know about families and communities most affected by justice involvement is that they have the capacity to forgive, love, and support people coming home from jails and prisons. They are the ones to remind people to take their medicine or to serve as the motivation to not pick up another drink. How local communities can leverage that commitment is a question that Vera is exploring in our new project, Close to Home. We are confident that this work to learn how jail staff can engage families of people who are incarcerated for short time periods will have widespread implications for counties across the United States.