Sometimes an opportunity presents itself to stand back and take a look at what we are doing and how well we are managing. Such a situation arose when our prison District # 11 Probation & Parole unit was invited to participate with the Department of Medical Assistance (DMAS) on a Support Act Planning Grant. The grant is designed to support DMAS’s work to increase substance use disorder (SUD) provider capacity in the State of Virginia and assist the efforts of the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) to connect inmates and supervisees to SUD and recovery services. Our District was requested to provide information on community corrections for the planning grant, and to serve as a pilot if DMAS were to be awarded an implementation grant. It should be noted that since 2013 this District, located in the Northern Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, has experienced a serious heroin and fentanyl epidemic.
© Tessie N Lam & Brandon B Daisy, 2022
The World Needs Dialogue!
Four: Putting Dialogue to Work
ISBN: 978-1739991159
Situation
Sometimes an opportunity presents itself to stand back and take a look at what we are doing and how well we are managing. Such a situation arose when our Community Corrections District # 11 Probation and Parole unit was invited to participate with the Department of Medical Assistance (DMAS) on a Support Act Planning Grant. The grant is designed to support DMAS’s work to increase substance use disorder (SUD) provider capacity in the State of Virginia and assist the efforts of the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) to connect inmates and supervisees to SUD and recovery services. Our District was requested to provide information on community corrections for the planning grant, and to serve as a pilot if DMAS were to be awarded an implementation grant. It should be noted that since 2013 this District, located in the Northern Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, has experienced a serious heroin and fentanyl epidemic.
Objectives
District # 11’s objective was to provide a snapshot of the District’s operations pertaining to re-entry efforts within VADOC and the local regional jails. Furthermore, the District was to identify the availability of community resources for substance abuse and co-occurring disorders (multiple medical or mental health issues), as well as homelessness in the geographical communities within the District. In order to achieve an accurate snapshot, we conducted a Working Dialogue, utilizing a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis for District # 11 Probation and Parole’s re-entry practices and SUD or co-occurring resources available to supervisees.