Corrections_Today_May_June_2020_Vol.82_No.3

process of adopting Joseph Booker Slone got Slone to think about how easily people all fall prey to opioids and how much information is needed to fully understand and combat it. “We have to be fearless about changing our mind based on new information,” Slone said, recit- ing a quote from Leonardo Da Vinci. He also quoted Dr. Nora Volkow, who once asked, “How do take what we know about the brain science of addiction to guide our response within the criminal justice system?” “We have to be fearless about changing our mind based on new information,” Slone said, reciting a quote from Leonardo Da Vinci.

died from opioid use between 2010-2017 had been incarcerated within a year of their death. Slone said that part of what inspired his work was the work of the Buffalo Opioid Crisis In- tervention Courts. Between 2009 and 2016, the number of opioid-related deaths in the state of New York had doubled, but there was a noted decrease in the city of Buffalo as more and more awareness of the crisis emerged. These courts, which begin treatment of opioid-addicted individu- als within hours of arrest, were founded by Judge Craig Hannah. Slone then shared an NBC News report about Judge Hannah with the audience. Slone stated that, in Tennessee, it is likely that there are at least 7,800 Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) inmates in jails who have been diagnosed with substance use disorders (SUDs). He also noted that there are 13,140 people in prisons who could be diagnosed as well. Slone noted that the medication of opioid use disorders (MOUD) in correctional facilities needed to be implemented, noting how Rhode Island has imple- mented such treatment programs and had a 12.3% decrease in overdose deaths following release in 2017. In Tennessee, the Tennessee Department of Health began to promote “Prevention through Education.” This has involved including voluntary classes in approximately half of Tennessee jails and mandatory classes for men and women as a condition of their su- pervised release. These classes now include education about infec- tious diseases commonly associated with illicit

Noting that “brain healing takes time,” Slone went on to speak about the Opioid Intervention Courts. He stated that there were 70,200 overdose deaths in 2017, two-thirds of which were from opioids. He also noted that 25% of individuals that

drug use and how to ac- cess treatment and other harm reduction services. Slone also discussed what he considered the “essential components of the most successful recovery-oriented com- pliance strategies.” He described them as such: →

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