Community Support Key To Success Of Jail Chemical Addiction Program
By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part feature looking at the JCAP program.
WARSAW — As the opioid epidemic continues to impact communities across the United States, local churches and businesses are coming together in support of the Kosciusko County Jail Chemical Addiction Program.
JCAP Coordinator Courtney Jenkins, Kosciusko County Sheriff Kyle Dukes and Jail Commander Shane Coney, the driving forces behind the local JCAP, are quick to credit local supporters for the program’s success.
“There are just amazing organizations in our community that have stepped up to fill those classes with meaningful content that’s helpful to our graduates as they move back into the community,” Jenkins said. “Our community contributors make this successful and they’re so passionate about genuinely helping.”
Jenkins’ involvement with the program began following her son’s drug possession arrest in 2016.
“Obviously it was a shock and it was really hard, so I didn’t do a whole lot for a long time,” Jenkins said. “I just laid in bed and cried and kind of felt sorry for myself.”
A friend told Jenkins about the Smart Recovery program and suggested that she take the course to become a facilitator.
“The thing that I saw with my son coming in and out of jail was nothing changed for him for the better. I think as a young person you’re pretty arrogant and instead of taking the opportunity to re-evaluate your life and decide you need to make better life choices, they take the opportunity to make different friends and learn new ways of doing things that aren’t really healthy,” Jenkins said. “He really didn’t connect with AA, so at that point, I just started looking for another program.”
In late 2017, Jenkins began hosting Smart Recovery meetings at the Kosciusko County Jail.
In 2018, the sheriff’s office, under Sheriff Rocky Goshert, received an $87,000 grant from the Attorney General’s office to start a JCAP program.
“So I was on the schedule for the first women’s JCAP group in October 2018 and I worked with the former jail commander to put together their applications and those types of things,” Jenkins said. “I really wanted to see the program take off, so I just tried to help where I could.”
In January 2019, when Dukes took office as the new Kosciusko County sheriff, he asked Jenkins if she would be interested in coordinating the program.
Initially, Jenkins did a lot of work with the program for no pay.
“The budgets for 2019 were already done, so I volunteered until August or September of 2019,” Jenkins said.
This eventually developed into a full-time position as JCAP coordinator. Dukes connected Jenkins with Shane Coney, Albion resident and former Marine, who came on as jail commander at the Kosciusko County Jail when Dukes was elected.
The three have made it a priority to address addiction issues in the county.
“If we don’t do something, it’s just going to get worse. We’ve got to start somewhere,” Coney said.
The local JCAP program has grown significantly under the leadership of Dukes, Coney and Jenkins.
“We were alternating men and women’s programs before,” Jenkins said. “We didn’t have the funding to run them both at the same time. I think we had the community support — it just wasn’t in place to have all those classes for both groups at the same time, but that’s where we are.”
Jenkins said there is enough community support to fill the JCAP participants’ schedules with classes for six to eight hours each day.
“Their schedules are incredibly full,” Jenkins said. “There are just amazing organizations in our community that have stepped up to fill those classes with really meaningful content that is helpful for our graduates as they move back into the community.”
Jenkins said that while most programs focus strictly on recovery classes, JCAP is the only program she’s aware of that focuses equally as much on life skills classes as recovery.
“Unless they have the skills and the confidence to really build a new life, they’re going to continue to go back to where they came from — and we have to stop them from going back,” Jenkins said. “We need to give them the skills to build their own path, so they do the ServSafe certification class through the Purdue Extension Office, they do the Core Mechanical ‘Intro to Construction’ class.”
“Lutheran Health Network came to us and said they wanted to be involved, so they’re doing a dietician class, they’re doing a navigating healthcare class and helping with our mock interviews, in addition to a financial contribution to the program,” Jenkins said. “We have this amazing relationship with Grace College where they’re offering a manufacturing logistics course for our men and a hospitality certificate program for our women and they had to jump through hoops to get the grant funding to be able to do it, but they were willing to do that because they’re passionate about helping and making a difference in our inmates’ lives.”
Mock interviews are done with about a dozen different companies in the community to provide interview experience.
“I would really like the community to know how supportive this program is. Our sheriff really supports this program, no taxpayer money funds this program, it’s all grants,” Jenkins said.
The program has a 67 percent success rate. Of the 67 percent that are doing well and building new lives, Jenkins said she is in contact with almost all of them on a weekly basis.
“Our biggest thing is after they get out of here,” Coney said. “That’s what we’re working on now and we’re getting a lot of support.”
“Every single decision counts. It’s your friends, it’s your environment, it’s making sure you put safeguards in place because it’s not realistic to think you’re never going to go to the gas station again — and a lot of them buy paraphernalia at the gas stations, so that’s a big trigger,” Jenkins said. “So you have to be prepared for that moment, especially the first five or six times, it’s really going to hit you, but eventually you become desensitized to it.”
“We work really hard to offer them supports once they leave the jail. New Life Christian Church has been amazing in working with our graduates and Purdue Extension Office — a lot of our people go back over to Purdue Extension office to do community service hours, just putting them in good places and it sets them up for success,” Jenkins said.
Individuals and organizations currently working with JCAP include: Beaman Home, Before5.org, Boundless, CORE Mechanical, Delta Fitness, Don Swartzentruber from Warsaw High School, G & G Hauling, Grace College, Life Works Counseling & Consulting, LITE Jail Ministry, Lutheran EMS, Lutheran Health Network, New Life Christian Church and World Outreach, Old National Bank, Purdue Extension Office, Quality Correctional Care, SMART Recovery, Spoonful of Imagination, True Purpose Ministries and Warsaw Adult Education.
JCAP operates solely on grant funds and donations. Local businesses interested in working with JCAP may contact Jenkins at the Kosciusko County Jail.