Sheriff James Cummings
Barnstable County’s jail is featured in a film about how to deal with inmates with substance abuse problems.
Earlier this year, the Barnstable County Correctional Facility was chosen as one of six sites across the country to serve as models for inmate residential substance abuse treatment.
Among other things, these mentor sites were tasked with showing other adult detention centers how the treatment can and should work.
To do that, the Bureau of Justice Assistance produced a just-completed training film at Barnstable’s facility for correctional administrators looking to replicate the local program. The program is based on a modified therapeutic community composed of specially training correctional officers, treatment counselors and inmates, according to a statement from the facility.
The program features an aftercare program, including a Community Reentry Council consisting of community treatment and service providers and community corrections that meets to develop referrals and resources for each inmate six weeks before release.
The program was also the first of its kind to provide injected naltrexone (commercial name Vivitrol) to inmates to facilitate drug free transition back to the community.
Sheriff James Cummings, who oversees the correctional facility, said: “I think this film will further confirm that our inmate treatment regimen works superbly within our peer group and in many respects helps leads the way.”
The program has also been honored by the federal government. In July, the White House’s Drug Policy Control released a 93-page document citing the Justice Department’s embracing of Residential Substance Abuse Treatment programs and crediting Sheriff Cummings specifically.
The Barnstable County Correctional Facility holds the county’s pre-trial and shorter-term sentenced inmates (21⁄2 years or less).
It opened in October of 2004, was accredited by the American Correctional Association in 2010, and re-accredited last year with a score of 100%.
