For people who are homeless, getting out of jail can sometimes prove to be more of a problem than a relief.
An ongoing lack of local facilities and services for homeless people with mental illness, chronic alcoholism, or substance abuse problems has turned jail into the largest de facto in-patient psychiatric and detox facility in Santa Barbara County, according to information from Bringing Our Community Home, the organization coordinating the county’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. And inmates released to the streets often end up in the same circumstances that landed them in jail in the first place.
To minimize the “revolving door” phenomenon among homeless offenders, Bringing Our Community Home has teamed with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department to create a homeless inmate jail discharge program.
Through the program, a professional works with inmates from all over the county to develop an individual discharge plan that establishes housing and long-term resources.
“When we were putting together the 10-year plan [to end homelessness], a basic element to plans all over the country that we referenced included discharge and housing management programs,” said Bringing Our Community Home Executive Director John Buttny.
Buttny said reoccurring jail time has become a problem for inmates who are chronically homeless—especially if they struggle with alcoholism or substance abuse.
“We knew [the program] was something we wanted to have,” he explained. “The Sheriff’s Department was interested, and they told us, ‘If you raise the money, we’ll give you a desk and a phone.’”
So Bringing Our Community Home staffers went to work on fundraising and came up with three grants totaling approximately $34,000, from the city of Santa Barbara, the county of Santa Barbara, and the Fund for Santa Barbara. The grant money is going toward paying for a discharge planner and transportation for inmates once they’re released from prison.
In October, Bringing Our Community Home hired Tona Wakefield to fill the planning position. Wakefield now works in the jail’s inmate services building, and develops discharge plans for inmates living in both North and South County. Prior to coming to the jail, Wakefield worked as a family advocate for the Mental Health Association of Santa Barbara County. She also serves on the county’s Advisory Board on Drug and Alcohol Problems, and is a member of the Criminal Justice Task Force and Restorative Policing Task Group.
“I go into the jail and ask people, ‘Are you going to be homeless upon your release?’” Wakefield said. “Then [the inmates] fill out the forms and I find out what is the next step.”
That next step involves either contacting local shelters or homeless outreach service organizations that can help find transitional housing. Wakefield said in the first month of the program she developed plans for 38 people, approximately 40 percent of whom are living in the North County.
“When it comes down to it, there are a lot of people out on the streets willing to help people who are homeless, whether it be churches or shelters or other organizations,” she said.
Once the plan is complete, Wakefield and several other jail and Bringing Our Community Home employees arrange for transportation to the new housing facility or to a central place in the community.
She said providing transportation has proven more effective in preventing recidivism than “having them walk down the hill by themselves in the middle of the night.”
“We hope this will help stop the cycle [of homelessness and drug abuse], but these are complicated problems that have been going on with these people for a long time,” Wakefield said. “This is a start to another piece of the puzzle.”
And along with helping individuals start their lives over, both Wakefield and Buttny hope the program will minimize the county’s jail overcrowding problem.
“That’s definitely one of the hopes that Sheriff [Bill Brown] has, and we’d like to help him with that,” Buttny said.
For more information on the jail discharge program and other Bringing Our Community Home programs, visit bringsbcohome.org.
Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 24-31, 2009.
