The Berrien County Sheriff’s Department is entering into a partnership with Corewell Health and Harbortown Treatment Center to provide opioid addiction treatment to inmates at the Berrien County Jail as part of its new MAT program.
Sheriff Chuck Heit tells us MAT, or Medication Assisted Treatment, has been tested in a pilot at the jail for about a year now. However, he’s now identified these new local partners who could better provide care than the previous vendor. He says the main goal is to prevent overdose deaths.
“One of the things we know is that when people are incarcerated, if they go back to using at the same rate they did, that is a 33% increase in overdoses,” Heit said. “So the program is medication and also the treatment, the therapy involved in it.”
During the county’s pilot of MAT, did it help?
“We definitely saw a more focused discharge planning. So as you may know, at the jail, we basically start discharge planning when they come in, because they could get bonded out or depending on sentences. So, the biggest thing is establishing for those individuals to help them be successful when they get out.”
Heit says the county is using a portion of its opioid settlement funds for the MAT program at a cost of about $180,000 a year.
The Berrien County Board of Commissioners this week approved a contract with Corewell and Harbortown for the treatment services. The county has also been working with the First Church of God and Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center to help treat addiction.
