Buffalo’s justice system is addressing the local opioid problem in a unique way: opening a court dedicated to treating people with opioid addiction who come into contact with the law.
The Buffalo, N.Y., court program, which began in early May, offers drug treatment to everyone who has an identified opioid problem, according to Judge Craig Hannah, who supervises the program at Buffalo City Court.
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Everyone who is arrested in Buffalo goes through a routine medical examination in the holding centre, he said. If they admit to having a recent overdose or to recently having used opioids, their case may be referred to the court. Then, they will be offered an option to participate in the program and receive treatment that medical staff recommend.
“Once they’ve discussed everything with their lawyers, they get released from jail to go either to inpatient treatment or directly from jail to the outpatient facility,” said Hannah.
In the meantime, their court case is put on hold.
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It normally takes between three months to a year for a case to go to trial, said Hannah, and the court was finding that it was sometimes too late for people to wait that long to get help.
“Sometimes we do get death certificates for an individual or the DA moves to dismiss a matter because the person was deceased by the time the matter went to trial.”
Erie County, which includes the City of Buffalo, has a huge opioid crisis, according to Gale Burstein, the county’s commissioner of health.
“This year has really been a terrible year. We’re averaging one to two overdose deaths a day coming to our medical examiner’s office,” she said. There were 296 opioid-related deaths in Erie County in 2016.
People who are participating in the opioid court are able to receive medication-assisted treatment to help get stabilized, she said, and these costs can often be covered by Medicaid.
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According to Hannah, a participant first completes about 30 days of inpatient care, if it’s appropriate in their case, and then will graduate to an intensive outpatient program for another 30 days. While in that program, they attend group and one-on-one meetings and are required to report to him in court every day.
“They have constant contact, constant motivation and constant monitoring that they’re staying drug- and alcohol-free,” he said.
If someone breaks the rules, they might be taken out of the program, put back on the regular court calendar and be required to post bail, he said. And not everyone is eligible: they wouldn’t put a convicted drug dealer in their drug treatment group, for example.
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“To use the vernacular, you’re putting the fox in the henhouse, you know?” he said.
Once the participant successfully completes their mandated strict outpatient program, they’re placed into a looser outpatient program and their case is scheduled again to be heard in court.
“I think the main advantage is, we’re getting them healthy,” said Hannah. “And once we get them healthy, especially for a defendant, when they’re healthy they can participate in their defence better as opposed to just having a plea to get them out of court.”
“You get them healthy, you get them productive, you get them back in society.”
Although the program has only been operating for about a month, so far they haven’t lost a defendant before their court date, he said. They’ve had about 56 participants and have the capacity for 100.
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Hannah believes this novel approach is making a difference and is much better for people and society than the old “lock everybody up” approach to drug-related crime.
“One person we had recently just finished his 30 days of daily contact and now he’s going into traditional outpatient services. And the main thing he said was he really appreciated us staying on top of him. Because a lot of times you just need that extra push and having people carrying and pulling for you to make a change in your life.”
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