BETTER FROM THE INSIDE

SCHOOLCRAFT COUNTY JAIL OFFERS PROGRAMMING FOR INMATE BETTERMENT

While much of the Schoolcraft County Jail’s interior is dilapidated, the inmates inside are being offered multiple opportunities for betterment prior to returning to society, including group therapy sessions and GED procurement. Pioneer Tribune file photo

While much of the Schoolcraft County Jail’s interior is dilapidated, the inmates inside are being offered multiple opportunities for betterment prior to returning to society, including group therapy sessions and GED procurement. Pioneer Tribune file photo

MANISTIQUE – Schoolcraft County Jail is expanding beyond merely housing inmates – offering offenders opportunities to cope with substance abuse issues and expand their education. The grant- and self-funded programs are a part of the jail’s larger mission to return inmates to be contributing members of the community.

According to Janet Pratt, board certified family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital, the hospital had received a Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan grant to address the opioid crisis.

“While Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital is not a substance use disorder clinic, SMH strives to provide care for the whole person, including physical and mental health care,” she explained. “This includes addressing substance use when needed.

In an effort toward a healthier community, this collaborative project with the Schoolcraft County Jail provides grant funded substance use services to incarcerated individuals who choose to participate in the program,” she continued. “The voluntary program is coordinated by our behavioral health team along with the registered nurse at the jail, and consists of group therapy for substance use, as well as evaluation for Vivitrol (injectable naltrexone) by our nurse practitioner.”

Pratt noted that Vivitrol is FDA approved for those with opioid use disorder and/or alcohol use disorder and is administered monthly. Unlike Suboxone or methadone, she said Vivitrol is not a controlled substance,

According to the Vivitrol website, the drug treats alcohol dependence in “patients who are able to abstain from alcohol in an outpatient setting prior to initiation of treatment” and “prevention of relapse to opioid dependence, following opioid detoxification.” The website also notes that the drug “should be part of a comprehensive management program that includes psychosocial support” — such as the therapy sessions offered at the jail.

“The grant covers costs for visits associated with the group therapy, associated lab work, the medication, and workbooks used in group therapy,” Pratt explained. “After release from jail, people are referred to outpatient services. The goal is full recovery.”

While services in the jail had been initially delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pratt said, with the help of jail personnel, services resumed in July.

“Feedback from participants and jail staff has been positive,” she explained. “The grant expires this fall, but Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital has a good chance of renewed funding for an additional year through September 2021.”

According to Charlie Willour, current undersheriff for the Schoolcraft County Sheriff’s Department, inmates who participate in the program attend group therapy sessions once per week.

“We’re getting some pretty good feedback from the inmates about this,” he explained, noting separate sessions for males and females are held, each lasting approximately one and a half hours. “This is all voluntary … and the Vivitrol injection — some of them take it, some of them don’t.”

Jo-Nell Berger, an RN with Wellpath, which provides on-site medical services to the jail’s inmates, explained that the Vivitrol process requires laboratory testing and “a lot of teaching” prior to inmate participation.

“They (inmates) would also continue this program on release from jail and go to Janet Pratt’s office,” she said. “It’s an oral dose at first and then a monthly injection.

You don’t take the injection to be in group therapy,” Berger added.

Currently, there are 10 participants in the group therapy sessions, Willour explained.

“Participants have to have a medical evaluation by Jo-Nell, then they have to be quarantined for 14 days,” he said. “Then, if they want to participate with the Vivitrol, they have to do bloodwork and stuff like that. So, it’s a little bit of a process before we can get them actually into group therapy.

Half of the inmates is about what participation is right now — so that’s not a bad deal,” Willour continued. “I’m pretty happy about it.”

Additionally, Willour said that the jail had been offering inmates the opportunity to earn their General Education Development certificate.

“We have an agreement with Manistique High School to offer that program and … we have a computer set up, which we purchased, so they can study online,” he explained. “We give them time to study online and they have to go to the school to actually take the tests for the GED.”

Willour added that one inmate has already used the program to obtain their GED and that success is “well worth offering the program.”

“If inmates choose to participate, we’ll set aside an hour a day that they can get online to do their studying,” Willour explained. “The time they need to study all depends on how close they are to getting their GED.”

Willour noted that he credits

Kaydean Zellar, Schoolcraft County Jail deputy, with getting the program started within the jail, and former MHS principal Butch Yurk, for his administration over the entire GED program for the school.

The program has been offered in the jail for just over a year and currently has two inmates participating, Willour said.

“I don’t know if they’ll be able to get through the whole program, because their jail sentences aren’t that long, but at least it gives them a little boost before they get out of jail to help them out a little,” he explained. “I think it’s a worthwhile program and it didn’t really cost us anything other than buying a laptop computer. I am pretty happy with what we’re doing with it.”

Willour added that he would like to implement additional programs in the future, but the jail is currently limited with space to accommodate the programming,

“Right now, our problem is trying to find places to put these people and have these meetings because it’s very difficult and we don’t have the room to do it,” he said. “The two group therapy session facilitators have been really big champs about doing it in places where we probably shouldn’t … I give them a lot of credit for being willing to do it in this type of situation, but they’ve been really good about it. So, may hat is off to them.”

For more information about the programs offered to inmates of the Schoolcraft County Jail, call 341- 2122.

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