ANDERSON – Madison County courts have a new weapon in their arsenals to reduce incarceration, improve recovery outcomes and reduce relapses by felony criminal offenders with mental illnesses or substance addictions.
Madison Circuit Court 1 Judge Angela Warner-Sims, who oversees the problem-solving courts, said Indiana’s new Recovery Works program represents a shift from the treatment of mental illness and addiction from a legal issue to more of a social issue.
“I think it’s an absolute transformation of the criminal justice system,” she said.
Madison County Sheriff Scott C. Mellinger estimated up to 25 percent of calls for service involve individuals who are mentally ill or on drugs. Up to 20 percent of inmates in the Madison County Jail at any given time may be mentally ill, and up to 80 percent have some type of drug addiction, including alcohol, he added.
However, treatment costs for those who are uninsured or underinsured can prevent a judge from ordering treatment for those who have no income or insurance, Warner-Sims said.
"What I hear and what most judges hear is 'I don’t have the money to go,'” she said. “If there are no resources for them to access these things, it’s an exercise in futility.”
Administered by FSSA’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Recovery Works allocates up to $10 million the first year to be distributed statewide to cover the costs of treatment for those without insurance who might otherwise be incarcerated. The allocation for the program is expected to jump to $20 million in its second year.
“The system by and large has not shown the effects we hope by incarcerating people,” Warner-Sims said.
Though it hopefully will have a positive social impact, Recovery Works really is driven by a need to reduce the cost to taxpayers of housing people who are not violent in the state’s prisons, Warner-Sims said. The action is in line with other legal changes, including a declaration by the Indiana Department of Correction that it no longer would accept offenders with lower-level felonies.
“What that says to the community is ‘We don’t want to house those people,’” she said.
Warner-Sims said she anticipates Recovery Works will result in fewer contempt of court convictions for those who are financially unable to meet a judge’s order.
“This is a vehicle that we would use in the problem-solving courts,” she said. “We already embrace a lot of the concepts and ideas that Recovery Works is solving.”
Chris Lanane, coordinator of Madison County Drug Court, said he also believes Recovery Works will be helpful to the clients he serves, especially those who are able to work only part-time.
“They have a lot of other costs when they come into our program,” he said.