Here are three centers that recently opened their doors around the country:
- Santa Cruz County Sheriff Champions New Sobering Center: “Arresting People Over And Over [Is] Like Banging Your Head Against The Wall — Why Not Interrupt That [with] A Treatment Center?” For California Healthcare Foundation Magazine, J. Duncan Moore Jr. reports on Santa Cruz’s new sobering center that provides “substance use treatment and mental health care” for people when they are arrested for intoxication, allowing them to “avoid the traditional criminal justice system pathway that puts them in the county jail.” As Moore reports, “what makes the Santa Cruz project unique and successful is strong support” from County Sheriff Jim Hart who has made it a mandate “that any arresting agency in the county that wants to use the county jail must also commit to bringing eligible people to the sobering center” instead.
Sheriff Hart explained to the magazine that “people who have been picked up by police for the first time for driving under the influence or for public inebriation can be brought to the sobering center for up to 24 hours to dry out… [and] the center also helps people who struggle with chronic alcohol use or substance use disorder [which also] saves county resources by reducing calls for service and limiting unnecessary bookings.”
Hart also explained that the existence of the sobering center “allows us to prioritize people coming in [instead of taking everyone to jail]…bad things happen in jail, our jail admissions are led by mental health challenges, addiction, and poverty, that is what drives the system, and we want to reduce the incidence of bad things happening. ”
Luis, a person who has struggled with alcohol addiction and received treatment at the sobering center, said that the facility turned his life around:
“Luis was having DUIs and losing jobs… ‘everything kept stacking up’… [but then he entered the program at the sobering center], where the staff helped stabilize him… Luis spent eight days in detox, after which he went into a residential treatment center… ‘without the sobering center, to be honest, I don’t know what I’d be doing, [now] I am learning, doing group meetings, talking about our feelings. All that helps me out… it’s a big step for me.’”
- Albuquerque Opens “Around The Clock Sobering Center.” For the Albuquerque Journal, Noah Alcala Bach reports on the city’s new “sobering center at its flagship behavioral health facility at the Gateway Center.” The new facility will have capacity to provide treatment and services to “up to 50 patients at a time [who are] struggling with alcohol or drug addiction… and up to 18,250 people annually… giving people a place to sober up that’s not an emergency room or jail cell.” Kasi Foote took a tour of the new facility for KOB4 and explained that the center is “staffed with medical professionals… who can do everything than an ER can do, but without the wait” and is designed to allow first responders “drop off right at the front door,” so patients can get care quickly, and first responders can get back on the streets faster.
Notably, Albuquerque also has a Community Safety Department, which is the “third branch of public safety” and houses the city’s unarmed responder teams. Thus, many calls for service involving people who are intoxicated are routed to mental health professionals, as part of the city’s effort to send the right expert for every problem. Now, these responders will be able to take people somewhere where they can both sober-up and be connected to long-term services as needed.
- Des Moines Opens Its First-Ever Sobering Center Where People Can Go “Instead Of Jail Or The ER.” For ABC5 News, Connor O’Neal reports on Polk County’s first-ever sobering center where “Iowans facing addiction and mental health crises” will be able to receive treatment. Patients “can stay up to 23 hours at the facility” and when they complete their short-term treatment, staff connect them to additional resources, “so the care doesn’t end when they leave.” Angela Connolly, chair of the Polk County Board of Supervisors and champion of the new center, explained to the news station that the sobering center was the public safety “piece that we had been missing” because now people can be taken here “instead of going to jail or the emergency room.”