DOC teams up with SDSU to expand offender reentry services

The Community Practice Innovation Center at South Dakota State University has been awarded a $3 million grant to work on a substance abuse disorder support program for individuals transitioning out of prison and back into the community.

State Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko says SDSU will use the Health Resources and Services Administration grant for their Stigma, Treatment, Avoidance and Recovery in Time– or START-SD — program. She says work will focus in Hughes, Bon Homme, Yankton and Codington counties for individuals transitioning out of the Women's Prison in Piere, Mike Durfee State Prison at Springfield and the Yankton Minimum Center in Yankton.

Wasko says a large portion of the offenders in prison have substance abuse disorders when they enter the judicial system. She says the goal is to increase access to treatment, establish peer coaching services, expand reentry programming and provide post-reentry support.

Through the START-SD program, Wasko says currently or recently incarcerated offenders will have increased access to medication assisted treatment, counseling, behavioral therapy and peer coaching services. She says evidence-based reentry programming in the prison facilities will also increase, including services that help offenders prepare for release and are shown to decrease likelihood of recidivism.

In addition to providing services to those currently or recently incarcerated, START-SD-Impact will increase availability and access to coaching and peer-coaching services for the family of offenders. The program will also complete work to increase community engagement and decrease stigma surrounding substance abuse disorder and reentry. Training seminars will be available for correctional staff, medical professionals and behavioral health professionals, increasing support for treatment and recovery programming.