By Todd Ruger
The Sarasota Herald Tribune
SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. -- Five years ago, the county realized its jail was full of “frequent fliers,” people who came back time after time on minor alcohol and drug arrests or because they were dangerously high or drunk.
So the county began looking for a way to see if treatment, rather than jail time, could help break the cycle of arrest, jail, release and re-arrest.
Now, they believe they have found a method that works. With little fanfare, the county has spent $10 million on a series of programs offering comprehensive treatment for addicts, and it appears to be working.
Police and judicial leaders are calling the Community Alternatives Residential Treatment initiative a success as the program starts its sixth year in October and celebrates the completion of its 50th class of recovering addicts.
The average daily jail population is down. So are the number of drug and alcohol arrests in Sarasota, as well as the number of people officers take into protective custody under the Marchman Act, which allows the confinement of people who are so drunk or high they are a danger to themselves.
Sarasota Police Capt. Paul Sutton says the CART initiative has turned some law-breakers into sober, employed citizens.
“The frustrating part is we had the same people over and over again, and it didn’t do them any good,” Sutton said. “When you have hundreds of people no longer doing those things, they don’t have to do the crimes to support their habit.”
The county’s approach has become a model for other communities because it addresses all the ways addicts could fail and get arrested, said Chip Taylor, the county’s human services manager.
The initiative found 50 to 60 percent of participants remained sober a year after leaving the program, a startlingly high number compared to the roughly 10 percent average success rate for other treatment programs, Taylor said.
“We kept eliminating reasons why people could fail,” Taylor said. “The only excuse now was that they just didn’t want to.”
About half the money spent, $1 million or so a year, was for intake services at First Step, and the remaining $1 million a year is paid to the Salvation Army for operation of the residential treatment program.
A recent program graduate said a common experience among the 15 or so people who go through the residential treatment together is a period of wreckage and disaster right before getting to the program.
Robert Q., who did not want his last name published, said most of the participants were fairly young, and were there due to prescription drug abuse, and not alcohol. He said the program was no pushover.
“The thinking process really has to go through a metamorphosis here,” said Robert, who completed the program Sept. 24. “Whatever I’ve tried in 56 years hasn’t been working that well.”
Instead of taking intoxicated people to jail, officers now have the option to take them to First Step of Sarasota for medically supervised detox from alcohol or substance abuse.
Officers spend only a few minutes there instead of upwards of an hour booking someone into jail, and the people leave First Step with scheduled meetings for treatment.
A 10-week residential substance abuse treatment program at The Salvation Army was expanded too. It offers job training, family counseling and psychiatric evaluation.
After graduating, the recovering addicts can live in transitional housing for two years to assist in long-term recovery, as well as get services to reconnect them to family and other support structures and even get health treatment.
County leaders are holding a ceremony at the Nov. 10 Sarasota County Commission to commemorate the 50th class graduating from the Salvation Army’s program, meaning 750 people have gotten treatment that might otherwise be chronic visitors to the jail.
“The revolving door that existed at the jail has been stopped,” Taylor said.
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