SHELBY, Ohio – On August 3, 2014, the Shelby Police Department and Shelby Fire Department responded to yet another difficult call at a home on Broadway Avenue. Dispatch advised a 21-year-old man had been found unresponsive, possibly having overdosed on drugs.
Shelby Police officers arrived to find the Shelby Fire Department performing CPR on the young man, whose skin had grown pale – a young man who had struggled with heroin addiction in the past.
Once the Mansfield Ambulance Service arrived on scene, the young man was transported to OhioHealth MedCentral Shelby Hospital, but it was too late. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
This is not an unfamiliar story at the Shelby Police Department. More often than not a drug overdose proves non-fatal thanks to the timely administration of Naloxone (Narcan), an opioid antagonist used to reverse the effects of an overdose.
But the growing frequency of these calls has prompted Shelby Municipal Court Judge Jon Schaefer to identify a need to create a drug court in Shelby.
“With the people and the problem we have in town right now, which is horrendous, there are two choices for people on drugs,” said Schaefer during Shelby City Council in July. “They either get treatment and get off them forever and change their lifestyle, or they die.”
According to data from the Shelby Police Department, the department responded to 13 drug overdoses from July 2014 to July 2015.
Chief Lance Combs explained, and reports show, that many overdose calls result in charges for possession of drugs or possession of drug instruments. The majority of reports begin with police responding to an unresponsive person, both male and female ranging in ages from 15 to 40 years old.
According to Tom Stortz, investigator with the Richland County Coroner’s office, there were two deaths due to overdose in Shelby in 2014 – one death was a methadone overdose, the second was a heroin overdose. In Richland County, 29 total deaths were caused by drug overdose; one was by suicide, 28 were accidental overdoses. As of March 31, 2015, Stortz said there have been nine deaths due to drug overdoses compared to only seven drug overdose deaths as of March 31, 2014.
Schaefer explained drug courts have existed for close to 15 years, with Mansfield’s drug court being one of the pilot programs thanks to a grant from the Ohio Supreme Court. He noted the drug court program is a necessary and intense process, taking anywhere from 12 to 24 months to complete.
“Treatment is based on a system of progress and rewards, failures are punished in varying degrees of severity after each transgression,” said Schaefer. “Unfortunately when you’re dealing with drugs, there is no way to tell what your success rate is going to be because it depends on the individual. If the individual absolutely refuses help, you can’t help them.”
Richland County Common Pleas Court Judge Brent Robinson, who presides over the county’s drug court, said he believes Shelby could benefit greatly from a drug court.
“I think Shelby getting involved is a good thing. I think more people statistically get over drug abuse from counseling and drug courts than just throwing people in prison and expecting things to be better when they get out, said Robinson.
“Even if it’s just drug paraphernalia, they can actually deal with those issues at the municipal level. You have a gap in treatment in Shelby, and now that gap would be filled for misdemeanor offenders, which is always a good idea.”
Robinson spoke of the countywide and even nationwide drug problems. He noted the old methods of simply putting offenders in prison does not work if the underlying factors of drug use are not addressed.
“The reality was when they got out, they were still an addict and not mentally in a position where they wanted to quit using,” said Robinson. “Everybody knows drugs are bad for you and you could die from them, so what in the world made you decide to use these illegal substances to escape reality? What about your reality was so bad that you thought using drugs was the answer? Nothing is going to be 100 percent successful, but you get to a lot more people from the treatment method.”
So far, Parole Officer Mindy Dumbeck has submitted more than 200 pages of application forms to the Ohio Supreme Court. She said the court is backing Shelby “110 percent.” Currently, there are over 2,900 drug courts nationwide.
“They want to see this come to Shelby,” said Dumbeck.
Shelby has seen local support for a drug court as well, including from local treatment and counseling centers such as Reformers Unanimous and Family Life Center Counseling. Dumbeck said she has also visited Mansfield’s drug court to learn about the process.
“It’s very intense but rewarding, and to see the people that are in there…not everybody is successful but those that are get rewarded, and to see their face light up shows them they are making progress and they are striving to do something, said Dumbeck.
“I think with treatment court it’s about the support of the community, our officers are wonderful but they can’t do it by themselves, we need the community involved with it, and they also need to know the community is involved and support them.”
President Barack Obama also touted the benefits of drug courts in his speech during the NAACP’s 106th annual convention in Philadelphia, PA. President Obama called for serious reforms within the criminal justice system, highlighting drug courts as a cost saving alternative to incarceration.
“We should invest in alternatives to prison like drug courts and treatment and probation programs which ultimately can save taxpayers thousands of dollars each year,” said President Obama.
According to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, for every $1.00 invested in drug court, taxpayers save as much as $3.36 in avoided criminal justice costs alone. When considering other cost offsets such as savings from reduced victimization and healthcare service utilization, drug courts produce cost savings ranging from $3,000 to $13,000 per client.
“A lot of our other ancillary problems in this community in reference to crime are all drug related,” said Schaefer. “Since we’ve had the drug problem, thefts have multiplied 20-fold and it’s not just someone stealing a candy bar at the Duke Station anymore – they’re walking out with $700 to $800 at a time. If we can help curtail that, it’s going to benefit every citizen in this community.”
Schaefer acknowledged that some lives in Shelby have been saved thanks to the diligent efforts of Shelby’s law enforcement, but he believes a drug court can save many more lives.
“It’s easy for some people to say, let them kill themselves,” said Schaefer. “I know a lot of people actually have that attitude, but these are human beings. And I think if we can help save one, it’s very, very worthwhile.”
I think more people statistically get over drug abuse from counseling and drug courts than just throwing people in prison and expecting things to be better when they get out, Judge Brent Robinson said.
