With prison populations cut to fight COVID-19, rehabilitation goes virtual

COVINGTON, Kentucky—Alecia Webb-Edgington has never been more than just a slip of a woman, but her 5-foot-2-inch frame never got in the way of her becoming the first female deputy sheriff in her home county of Edmonson, or being able to attend the State Police Academy (her height would have precluded her in prior graduating classes) or from becoming the first female director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security.

So when the Kenton County Detention Center in Covington dramatically reduced its population over the past two weeks to slow the spread of COVID-19, she again did something never done before: turned those inmates into clients of the Covington-based Life Learning Center, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help people get their lives back on track.

Salena Zito/ Washington Examiner

It’s a job the organization does every day, just not this many people all at one time.

“So last week we went from 763 in detention down to 416 in Kenton County,” said Webb-Edgington from her office in Covington. Most of the released inmates are now clients of the Covington-based Life Learning Center, the partnership was formed with the jail and the county attorney’s office last Friday.

The goal of the release is to reduce the inmate population to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

“Now, not all of those people qualified at Life Learning Center because they have to be at a seventh-grade reading level to handle our program,” she said. They also have to be 18 years of age and pass a drug test. “If they don't meet our program guidelines, then we are sending them to other community partners for skilled training or GED or whatever other areas that they need. And we're having to do that within the guidelines of the CDC and what our governor has asked."

The foyers of the Life Learning Center have been temporarily turned into enrollment centers. It's fully operational, with nearly everything done virtually, although Webb-Edgington herself has been at her office every day.

Everything is done with very little human contact to keep the skeleton staff safe, as well as the former inmates.

The 66,000 square foot building is now mostly functioning just on the first floor where there are two entrances that have been reconfigured to do enrollment — the staff has been working through an intercom system on the telephone. There are two telephones at each of the entrances.

“So the person talks on the phone and we talk back and forth through that. Their drug testing is done either at their sober living house or at the detention center before they leave,” she explained. Then they give out all of the normal products they give anyone: essentially a backpack to go to sober living that has food, toiletries, and clothing.

“We're still checking in with people daily, virtually, we are still fully operational. We are still teaching all of the curriculum, too, just virtually,” she said.

Webb-Edgington said her nonprofit organization is working with StandUp Wireless to set people up who have just gotten out of detention with handheld electronic devices, then they get them into sober living where they've got connectivity via Wi-Fi.

“We can't just stop doing what we're doing because of COVID-19, this substance use disorder, we were a hot spot for that here in the Northern Kentucky area. Substance use disorder is not going to take a back seat to COVID,” she said.

Webb-Edgington is stubbornly hesitant to admit they are overwhelmed by the 35% increase in service. “We're moving along. I'm reluctant to ever say that we're overwhelmed. I'm an old state trooper,” she says, laughing.

It is hard not to believe that is exactly how she sees it.

They are also hosting for Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous on the Zoom platform.

“I can tell you, when all of this COVID goes away, what's going to come back around, and kick us right dead in the ass, is this substance use disorder,” she said. “If we don't stay open, where are these people going to go and what are they going to do?”