Midwest City jail diversion program focuses on helping people with mental illnesses, addiction find new lives

Aug. 08--MIDWEST CITY -- Susan Russell sits in a wooden chair in the city courtroom, her husband, Gary, is nearby.

Often times, residents in this room aren't here to celebrate.

Nearby, Reaina Harris, coordinator for the Midwest City jail's diversion program, smiles at Russell and hands her a certificate and a blue and silver coin.

"I just want to say congratulations that you made it this far," Harris tells Susan Russell.

"Thank you for giving me a chance on a new life," Russell said. "If it wasn't for you coming in and talking to me, I would have been in there another week or two, and it let me get back to life and grow as a person."

Russell is one of 12 people who have graduated from Midwest City's jail diversion program, an effort to reduce the number of people re-offending after being arrested by helping jail inmates with mental illnesses and substance-use disorders find treatment.

Russell, a 34-year-old mother of four, was arrested on larceny charges after accidentally taking a gift card from work, she said. That landed her in the Midwest City jail, the largest city jail in Oklahoma.

For years, Russell had struggled with depression after growing up in an abusive home environment. She would set goals, but never complete them, and she felt like a failure.

Through the diversion program, Russell receives therapy and has a psychiatrist that she sees through Red Rock Behavioral Health Services, which provides care to the diversion program participants.

"With Reaina's help, I became a better person," Russell said. "I've gotten some depression medicines that I needed, and I've got a great job; now I'm a shift supervisor at my job, and I've only been there two months, ... and I'm going to get my GED before I'm 40."

The diversion program can accept up to 25 people. It is financed through $25,000 in city dollars and $26,000 in state Mental Health Department funding.

For six months, participants receive outpatient treatment including individual and group therapy. They might also go to a support group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.

Since January of last year, 435 inmates have been screened for the program. Of that, 51 entered the program.

Harris said the 384 people who didn't participate either didn't want to receive treatment, weren't appropriate for the program or weren't motivated to change. Another barrier is that a person might be released from jail before they are accepted into the program.

Overall, 12 people have graduated from the diversion program, and 13 are actively participating. Seventeen people were revoked from the program, and nine never showed up. Six people who entered the program have been re-arrested.

"The main goal of the program is to reduce recidivism, so what we do is we screen everyone that comes through Midwest City jail," Harris said. "So we not only target re-offenders, we target everyone."

Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes decided to start the diversion program after realizing that 3,000 to 4,000 people come through the city's jail every year -- and they weren't changing their behavior or getting help with what landed them in the jail. The majority, an estimated 85 percent, have either a mental health or substance abuse issue, or both. And most people were arrested for a nonviolent offense.

Clabes got the idea for the diversion program after watching the jail chaplain work with different inmates. Clabes saw some inmates sincerely trying to change, but knew the jail didn't offer any help beyond its nondenominational religious services.

Clabes worked with Terri White, the state's mental health commissioner, and they started the jail pilot program, hoping that the agency could receive additional funding to start diversion programs in other communities.

"When I started in 1979, you put them in jail, and you went out and took another call for service and you didn't care what happened to them," Clabes said. "But we have to be more efficient and effective in law enforcement. Some people would say, 'You're being soft on crime,' but I think we're being morally responsible to the people we serve, whether it's our citizens or the people we come into contact with or the people we actually arrest. Not everybody in our jail is a bad person. They've just made a mistake."

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