Unique program provides addiction support behind bars
Prisoners across the country are suffering from addictions and receive little to no help getting clean, so they often relapse once they get out of jail.
Now a unique approach in Tennessee is providing a different model. Called “A Shot At Life”, prisoners are given counseling and Vivitrol injections.
As reported by WBIR, inmate Greg Fox was the first inmate to “graduate” and couldn’t be more grateful.
“I was on something every day for so long, that was my life,” Fox said. “That was what I was used to feeling. I had done drugs for almost 30 years.”
The program gives Vivitrol injections to non-violent inmates in an attempt to break the cycle of incarceration and addiction, using the time inmates spend in jail to battle the opioid epidemic.
“We have to do something different. We can’t incarcerate our way out of this problem that we have,” said Chief Lee Tramel with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. “When you go to jail you sit in a cell, and if you are not using that time, you are wasting that time.”
Once inmates enter the program, they are released from jail and receive treatment through the Helen Ross McNabb Center.
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To read more about this unique program for Tennessee inmates, please visit WBIR.com.