TIMES UNION REPORTS – After hearing about JCAP at the Kosciusko County Jail from Sheriff’s Office officials, U.S. Sen. Todd Young met with 11 men in the program.
What Young heard from them – as well as from Sheriff Kyle Dukes, Jail Commander Shane Coney and JCAP (Jail Chemical Addiction Program) Coordinator Courtney Jenkins – was how great the program is and that it should be emulated everywhere.
Young was in the area visiting local leaders and businesses. “We’re here to let our law enforcement leaders know that we care about you in what is otherwise a difficult time,” Young told Dukes in the Sheriff’s office at the start of his visit.
“I think it’s gotten a little bit better. But, you know, you see it and then you hear it on the radio about the anti-police, and then you go home and it’s on the nightly news every night. So it is a tough time,” Dukes responded.
He said it has affected hiring for the sheriff’s office. Where three years ago the KCSO might have averaged 63-66 applicants for one deputy position, Dukes said he only had 15-16 with a recent position that came open.
“So that doesn’t give you the same caliber of applicants,” Young said. Dukes agreed, adding they weren’t going to lower their standard either.
When Young asked Dukes what the biggest challenge is they are dealing with and was it drugs, Dukes said, “Absolutely. So here in Kosciusko County, we deal with meth. So that’s where Courtney comes into play at, and, Senator, I’m going to tell you something that other jails need to be doing here in the state of Indiana.”
Dukes then explained JCAP to Young. “It’s a drug rehab facility inside our jail. Courtney’s in charge of it, and it’s a four-month program: mental health, life skills, addiction, religion. And right now, we’re sitting at about a 54-56% success rate,” Dukes said.
Young said that success rate struck him as “incredibly high.”
“There’s no doubt,” Dukes said. There’s five other jails in Indiana doing JCAP, “and we’re leading the way.”
Jenkins said she’s researched many rehabilitation facilities throughout the country, even private facilities. “They’re lucky to be at a 27 to 32% success rate two to three years out. So for us to be at that 56, we’re doing something right, for sure. Our community is really involved in our program,” she said.
The KCSO received an $87,800 grant in August 2018 from the Indiana Drug Enforcement Association to start JCAP.
When Young asked if it took community support to make the program work, Jenkins said, “Absolutely! Absolutely 100% because without that, we don’t get that wraparound care and compassion and friendship once they leave the jail, which makes all the difference in their success.”
She said JCAP has a mentor program set up, so when participants leave the jail, they already have an established relationship. There is a family support group so the families are involved and understand what their loved one is going through, which contributes to their success.
“Because it’s hard. As a family, you don’t trust, you make all of these assumptions really early, and you don’t understand how hard it is for them. You don’t understand the process of them coming out of jail and just trying to reacclimate to life that they’ve never really lived because a majority of our participants have been addicts since they were in their young teenage years,” Jenkins explained.
Twenty-eight businesses from the community volunteer their time to come into the jail to teach, instruct and support, Dukes said. “So, yeah, our community has definitely come together as a team and that’s why we have a 56% success rate.”
Young said that was fantastic. He asked if the businesses that participated also helped with some of the funding.
“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about,” Coney said.
He said when they started, they didn’t know how to write grants, but they tackled them and would get some, or they would apply for grants and it took eight months or longer to receive them. The grant-writing process is very frustrating, he said.
“By the time you got awarded a grant, literally, the grant cycle had two to three months left in it,” Jenkins said. Coney added, “And I wasn’t going to spend $90,000 in two months.” Jenkins said they need “that trickle income to be able to pay instructors and pay for equipment and fitness uniforms and whatever it is that we’re paying for. We can’t just pay for those upfront, and the grant won’t allow us to pay for them upfront, but they’re also not giving us time.”
The grant comes from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, which flows down from the Bureau of Justice Association. Young asked what was specifically needed to be changed about the grant, and Coney said it needed to be easier. Jenkins said the grant application was not written to accommodate what they needed anyway. She said there’s two categories – equipment and supplies so “what’s equipment and what’s supplies?” Young’s assistant found that supplies is a synonym for equipment.
Jenkins said what they needed was instructor pay, equipment and to pay for classes and services. “Trying to define where the things that we’re asking for money for go … we don’t know where to go.”
She also explained all the other issues with the grant application.
She also talked about how the JCAP participants, after the four-months of the program, are good candidates for sentence modification to the work release program. Young asked if that’s why the employers were getting involved, too, because they are another source of labor, and Coney and Jenkins said yes.
“They call work release all the time needing people. You know what the workforce is like, everybody needs (employees),” Coney said, noting there are 78 people at work release and they’re all making $18 an hour. “It is awesome. We never thought that would happen. It’s great.”
Jenkins said it was a “real family atmosphere” at work release.
Young suggested he would have one of his staff members call Jenkins and they would start working with the Department of Justice to see what could be done. He said he never promises results, because they were dealing with the federal government, but he promised to try.
“We want other jails to start this,” Coney said. “And if they go through what we go through … they’ll give up.”
Dukes said whether one was a Republican or Democrat, “This is something we all can agree on that needs to happen.”
After discussing how the program can save taxpayers money in the long run, Dukes invited Young to go meet with the JCAP participants, which he did.
Young told the JCAP men, “I’m here, just as much as anything else, to let you know that I respect you and I respect you as fellow Hoosiers and human beings, people who are working hard to make the most of yourselves.”
He said he knows they’ve experienced some lows, but they had people at the jail who loved them, who were trying to give them the tools to put their life where they wanted it to be. He said he was really proud of the stories he heard about JCAP participants turning their lives around.
“So just keep the hope. Keep the hope. You’ll do it, too. No doubt in my mind. Every single one of you,” Young said.
He said they would all emerge out of JCAP as better versions of themselves with renewed confidence that they can overcome whatever obstacles come before them.
Young asked the JCAP participants if they had any questions of him. They didn’t have questions for him, but instead told him about how much they appreciated the program and what everyone was doing for them.
“As somebody with a drug abuse history and an addict and recovery, the things that you guys are doing are changing lives out here. You’re making a big impact on all of our lives. Not just our lives, our families’ lives, our kids’ lives. So we appreciate everything that you’re doing,” the first participant said.
Another participant said for him, it was all about the new associations in his life, and positive ones at that. “Because there’s been a lot of roadblocks in my life where I’ve just been trying to survive and hold myself together,” he said. “… Just the jail, the guards, everybody that comes in, they really just work together to try to make us a better version of ourselves. And I appreciate that,” he said.
He continued that JCAP was not only helping him to build a better of himself for him, but also for his son.
“It’s never too late to turn your life around,” Young replied.
Another guy said he’s been all over the U.S. and the Kosciusko JCAP was the first program like it in a jail. “It’s really cool what you guys are doing, and I hope it spreads like wild fire,” he said.
Young said it was because the people behind the program really care for the participants and see the God-given potential in each of them. “I hope you see that and unleash it,” Young said.
Another participant said the last few weeks were a “life-changing experience” for him. He said he’s had family members, who he hadn’t talked to in a long time, come to him and tell him they were proud.
“That means a lot. Especially trying to be a father in my kids’ lives,” he said. “… The people that come in here, they push you to be a better person. They treat you like a friend.”
Young gave the participant a hug.
