(MADISON) --The Madison Police Department has been awarded a $1.6 million federal grant to help prevent overdose deaths, and expand access to evidence-based treatment, recovery, peer support and more. The grant continues and expands the nationally-recognized Madison Area Recovery Initiative (MARI), a partnership with Safe Communities of Madison & Dane County, Dane County Department of Human Services, Tellurian Behavioral Health and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
According to Captain Shannon Blackamore, who leads the Department's community outreach efforts, "Hundreds of individuals experiencing overdoses have been referred to the pre-arrest diversion program, with 160 completing a six-month treatment program, resulting in drug charges being dropped."
National overdose deaths are trending downwards due to multiple factors, including multiagency collaboration such as MARI, that aim to help those in need to prevent overdoses and to deflect people from the criminal justice system.
According to a May 2024 Public health Madison Dane County report, overdose deaths in Dane County have changed with synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, now replacing heroin and prescription drugs as the main cause. There also has been an increase in overdose deaths involving cocaine, largely due to fentanyl being mixed in the cocaine supply. The highest drug overdose death rates have been among those 35-54 years of age. 31% of overdose deaths occurred among people who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). Black people are over 4.5 time more likely to die of an overdose compared with Dane County as a whole.
The three-year grant is from the U.S. Department of Justice's Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP), which promotes public safety and increasing access to substance use treatment and recovery support services.
The COSSUP national model has numerous "pathways to recovery" which MARI will be continuing, expanding and implementing:
- Expand current evidence-based MARI pre-arrest diversion activities to include a self-referral pathway; inclusion of probation and parole offenders, and transportation for participants to assessment and treatment
- Embed two Safe Communities Peer Support Specialists in MPD's Mental Health Unit to better support justice involved individuals in accordance with the Sequential Intercept Model
- Expand our MARI Resource Team (RT) to include juvenile outreach; peer led support groups in the Dane County Jail and to individuals re-entering the community post incarceration
- Expand the RT outreach to communities outside of Madison; fatal overdose grief support outreach; and improved narcotics task force search warrant coordination to support impacted household members.
- Improve access to real-time overdose incident information to identify emerging drug trends.
- Ensure availability of Naloxone for law enforcement, first responders, jail staff, and other justice system practitioners.
- Create substance use education and prevention program to connect law enforcement with K-12 students.
- Explore pre-booking or post-booking treatment alternative-to-incarceration programs with our Dane County Jail.
- Improve coordination with the District Attorney's Opiate Diversion Program.
- Improve and expedite treatment support and recovery services for Dane County Drug Court.
- Expand evidence-based substance abuse disorder (SUD) treatment by coordinating jail transports for MAT screening prior to the booking process.
- Provide SUD funding for assessment, treatment and inpatient beds for MARI participants.
- Explore contingency management and behavioral treatment possibilities for MARI.
- Implement recovery and transitional housing for MARI participants.
- Expand drug take-back programs in coordination with our grant partner and area law enforcement agencies.
MARI is housed within the Community Outreach section of the Madison Police Department, where it's Mental Health Unit is also stationed. Trained officers work with lived-experience peer support specialist to help those with substance abuse disorder to avoid the criminal justice system, seek treatment and, in many cases, turn around their lives. More information can be found here.
This past June, MARI was recognized by the U.S Conference of Mayor's with its 2024 Police Reform and Equitable Justice award for its "policies and practices that police departments across the nation are currently employing in pursuit of equitable treatment of all persons they are pledged to serve and protect."