County To Start Sobering Center Pilot Program For Meth Addicts To Access Services

By Kyle Martin

Bay City News Service

Santa Clara County is starting a new program in San Jose for residents with methamphetamine addictions who need a place to sober up and access services.

At the sobering center, which will open March 4 at 151 W. Mission St., local law enforcement and the county will pilot a program to offer meth users and addicts somewhere to spend up to 23 hours and 59 minutes -- just one minute shy of 24 hours -- sobering up before release or a transfer to addiction and substance abuse services.

"We're a safety net for people who are most in need," Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Cindy Chavez said during a news conference at the center Monday. "One of the things we've seen since 2006 is an increase in the number of people who are primarily using meth and getting into our drug rehab programs to try to focus on addressing that addiction."

Chavez said the county has been working on a program to offer police "ways to keep people from coming into custody so we can get them the help that they need" for substance abuse challenges.

So the county in October 2017 opened what will now be an expanded sobering center on Mission Street to hold drunken people until they sobered up. But county officials decided that they wanted to open up the center for meth users because the latter drug disproportionately affects county residents with addictions.

"We saw an increase in need for those who were using meth and those who were mentally ill -- (people who are) not violent, but just out in the community maybe frightening people or being frightened themselves," Chavez said. "This is an opportunity for us to learn, to pilot, to figure out what we can do to get people who are on the streets with these specific problems and do a hot or warm hand-off to a service."

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley told reporters that the county's courts were recently heavily focused on drugs, with nearly 40 percent of the jail population comprised of people with drug charges.

"Now, with the change in public policy, the change in legislation, we have fewer," Manley said. "And where are they now? They are in the streets."

Manley, who founded the county's Drug Treatment Court and Mental Health Treatment Court, said county officials have found that "incarcerating people does not change their use of drugs," and instead decided to shift focus on finding new ways addicts and substance abusers can shake their drug habits without going to jail.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen at Monday's news conference said, "drug addiction is something that touches almost every family in our county."

"We have to get out of this false choice of: we either have them in the jail or we have them on the street," Rosen said. "In the jail, they're not getting better, they're not getting good treatment there. And leaving them on the street doesn't help these people get better."

This means the county needs to provide "as many open doors as possible to give people the opportunity to change," Rosen added.

According to data from the county, 3,405 individuals were provided substance use treatment in the county in 2019. Those individuals had been admitted into some form of treatment or care 5,000 times. The county found that of those clients, 1,302 said methamphetamine was their primary drug of choice, 938 said alcohol and 641 said marijuana.

Rosen said the sobering center is "not all of the tools" the county needs to address meth addiction, "but it is one of the tools that we need."

"Certainly there will be a debate as to whether where we're drawing the line is the optimal place to draw the line, but I think that everybody agrees that the jail is not the place where we want to do drug treatment for everyone," Rosen added.

He did not specify if local law enforcement would be changing their practices to focus on bringing meth users to the center, but said prosecutors would be discussing that further.

Smith did not have specifics on what the sobering center with the methamphetamine expansion will cost the county, but added that it is "somewhere in the million-dollar range."

"The key here is that we're creating a system that's an integrated, long-term system to deal with addiction, whether it's alcohol, meth or any other drug," County Executive Dr. Jeff Smith said.

"However, we know that in Santa Clara County, meth is a huge problem, disproportionate to other counties, other areas, in the nation. So having this sobering center gives us the opportunity to address an individual's needs where they live at the time they are available," Smith said.

He said local law enforcement is used to just putting people in jail who are under the influence of drugs if they happen upon them in the streets.

"We know that doesn't work," Smith said.

County officials maintain that those who commit more serious crimes than simply being intoxicated, such as those who break into a home or commit a more violent offense, will likely still be prosecuted, arrested and incarcerated.

"Different police agencies will make up their own processes," Smith said. "But what we envision and what the sheriff will do is if somebody is in a situation where they would typically be cited and released -- or they would be released but they currently have an intoxication problem that makes the officer fear for the person's safety -- they'll be offered the opportunity to come to the sobering center and get sober."

The center was previously staffed by three licensed nurses, six health technicians, seven sobering specialists with either some lived experience, a clinical credential or a combination of the two, a program supervisor, an office manager and two data entry-focused employees, according to the sobering center's program director Tina Sentner.

With the new program, the sobering center has acquired an extra part-time nurse, and an additional health technician and case manager, both of whom are full-time, Sentner said.

Copyright © 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.