Redmond Police cited a person for possession of fentanyl. Instead of ending up in jail, the person graduated from inpatient drug treatment. Later, the individual moved into Oxford House, a place for people recovering from addiction in Bend, with the first month’s rent paid for by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. 

A person was struggling with fentanyl addiction and was cited or arrested five times for possession. He had a warrant in Washington County for theft. Instead of ending up in jail, he was put into inpatient drug treatment. The individual’s sister flew from Alaska to take him back to family after he graduated from treatment.

Those are just two of the people who have gone through Deschutes County’s new deflection program since it began in September. The idea is to direct people into treatment and not send them to jail.

As of March 27, the program has had 11 successful deflections and 10 unsuccessful. There are 14 clients currently enrolled. 

We know the rate of success may not look great, but have you ever known someone addicted to drugs? How easy was it to get them off of it? It’s not easy at all. And there can be multiple other challenges on top of substance abuse: mental illness, homelessness, the list goes on. A number of clients of the county’s program are no longer houseless, have their children back and have jobs. 

Oregon’s experiment with legalizing drugs under Measure 110 mostly ended in September with many counties starting up deflection programs. The hope was that the state could do a better job with these deflection programs to guide people into treatment by adding consequences.

It would be wrong to draw big conclusions about the Deschutes program a few months in. It does seem to work for some people. 

Jail doesn’t fix addiction. Treatment can. 

 

Cutline: Deschutes County’s deflection program, which seeks to treat drug addiction rather than put people in jail, has had some early success. (123RF)