Volume 29, No. 5 November 2007
RESTORING HOPE
USING SOCIAL WORKERS WITH PUBLIC DEFENDERS
By Dawn Jenkins, MSW, and Jennifer G. Withrow, MSW
“My client was looking for just one person to believe in
him. Even his parents had turned their backs on him. I was
that one person.”
— Jacque Joiner, MSW,
Covington Public Defender’s Office
“The primary mission of the social work profession is to
enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human
needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs
and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed,
and living in poverty…social workers promote social justice
and social change with and on behalf of clients,” according
to the National Association of Social workers Preamble.
Public Defenders are advocates for needy or indigent
juveniles and adults who are accused of “serious crimes” or
those whose legal action could result in detainment and the
loss of liberty. (KRS Chapter 31)
Together, social workers and public defenders are able to
successfully:
• Divert persons with significant social and economic
barriers to services and treatment so that they can
successfully transition into their communities and become
productive citizens;
• Provide judges with relevant mitigating information on
their clients’ health, mental health, and social history, as
well as viable alternatives to incarceration;
• Save Kentucky money in incarceration costs by diverting
persons with addiction and mental illness to communitybased
treatment; and
• Impact the overall rate of persons likely to re-enter the
criminal justice system.
National View on Whole Client Defending
“Holistic law is predicated on the belief that nothing
happens out of context. Falling ill or becoming involved in
a legal matter does not happen in a vacuum. Rather, a
process or series of events is required to bring the person to
the point where he develops cancer or she finds herself
enveloped in a nasty divorce,” according to Bill van
Zyverden, Founder, The International Alliance of Holistic
Lawyers.
Since the early 1990’s DPA has had as one of its core values
and long term goals, holistic client representation. One of
DPA’s long term goals is service to The Whole Client. This
goal states, “The Department will develop the capacity to
represent the whole client, working with their families and
developing disciplines such as social workers, alternative
sentencing advocates, mental health specialists, drug
treatment providers, community defending, specialty courts,
and team child.”
The agency began to work to implement this goal using
alternative sentencing workers in the 1990s funded initially
by a grant from the
Sentencing Project.
Mitigation specialists, many
with social work degrees,
were hired to assist in capital
cases. Then in 2002, DPA
received a federal grant to
partner with colleges of
social work and place social
work interns in trial offices.
These experiences helped
prepare the agency for the
current opportunity to
integrate social workers into
DPA as part of the defense
team.
Using social workers as an
integral part of a Public
Defender team is not a new
concept. Several states are
using social workers to great
success for individuals and
the criminal justice system.
The Bronx Public Defenders, Baltimore Public Defenders,
Maricopa County Public Defenders, Colorado Public
Defenders, and Rhode Island Public Defenders are using a
holistic approach to serving individuals with significant
economic and social barriers. Social workers have the training
and ethical and professional standards that make them
appropriate members of a successful defense team. They are
trained to assess health and mental health problems, find
needed treatment and resources appropriate for each
individual, and have the skill and will to assist in a client’s
successful transition from jail to their families and
communities.
The social service workers in Rhode Island, while affecting
thousands of lives, also saved the state $15 million dollars.
Colorado realized a savings of $4.5 million, in one county
alone. Their success includes diverting chronically mentally
ill adults from jails to community case management and
treatment. Through social worker intervention, jail
confinement between arrest and sentencing was shortened,
thus saving their state money.
Kentucky’s View: The Social Worker Pilot Project
In some regards, the Department Of Public Advocacy is the
largest law firm in Kentucky. Unlike other law firms, their
clients are needy juveniles and adults who enter the criminal
justice system with very complex economic and social ills.
By serving only the criminal complaint of individuals, and
not addressing the root cause of criminal activity, defenders
do a disservice to them and to the criminal justice system.
The bottom line, by serving the whole client, defenders can
reduce the number of persons re-entering the justice system
and save taxpayer’s money.
After receiving necessary legislative funding to create the
Social Worker Pilot Project, a core group of committed
individuals, including educators from the Kentucky schools
of Social Work, advocates, public defenders, and social work
professionals designed the Pilot. They created data collection
tools to measure successful outcomes including cost
savings and program effectiveness.
In September 2006, DPA hired the first staff social worker.
Three of the four social workers have master’s degrees in
social work. Each has bachelor’s degrees in social work.
DPA conducted office orientations and held a week-long
certified training for the new social workers and attorneys.
The Pilot began in October 2006 and was completed this
month, October 2007. Pilot offices include the Owensboro,
Morehead, Covington, and Bowling Green Trial Offices.
Combined the Pilot covers 17 counties.
DPA social workers begin working with clients from the time
each is appointed by the court, and conclude only after six
months following the disposition of that client’s case or
until the client is stable. DPA’s social workers have been
100% successful in finding available beds and outpatient
treatment, although it has required going to other states or
adjacent counties.
DPA social workers are
responsible for a variety of
services from conducting
mental health and
substance abuse
assessments to locating
treatment. “When I call a
treatment provider for a
client, the facility
responds more quickly
than if the attorney calls.
Facilities want to know
we have already made an
assessment,” says Rachel
Pate, BSW, Owensboro,
“Building sustainable
relationships with service
providers is also
important.” DPA social
workers also work with
attorneys to create
alternative sentencing
plans for judicial review,
and assist in the client’s
transition from jail to
treatment and from
treatment into the
community. During the
course of the pilot, the
typical person assigned a
social worker has been
someone with a history of alcohol or drug dependency or a
person with signs or symptoms of mental health problems.
Measuring Success
The Urban Studies Department, University of Louisville is
currently analyzing the data collected from the over 321
people served during the one year Pilot. This analysis will
be presented in the form of an objective report due on
December 1, and presented to the 2008 Kentucky Legislature.
Report findings will include an evaluation of the economic
and social problems facing DPA clients. The report will
present numbers for referrals to treatment and successful
completion of treatment. It will present successful alternative
sentencing options such as employment and education.
DPA implemented the pilot at a time when Kentucky’s prison
population is over 22,000. Jails are 22% over capacity, and
prisons are full. 1000 to 2000 new inmates are being added to
the prison population each year, and no new prisons are
being built.
The Pilot report will determine the savings to the
Commonwealth when using a social worker to divert needy
persons to treatment versus incarcerating them in jail,
prison or a juvenile treatment facility. Daily incarceration
costs add up: $36 average per day for and adult in a county
jail, $68.00 average per day for prison, and $200 to $422 per
day for juvenile treatment. The Department of Correction’s
Budget is higher than it has ever been at $417 million in
2008. These costs do not include collateral costs of
incarceration such as foster care for children, which is $22
per day for each child, and the Kentucky Transitional
Assistance Program, which is $186 per month for one child.
Yet, by diverting just three clients from jail, prison or
detention to treatment, the Commonwealth can pay the
salary, benefits, and operating expenses for one social
worker, $42,000.
Turning Lives Around
What is the value to Kentucky when someone
successfully reintegrates into the community, works
again, becomes a mother again? DPA clients report
that following intervention from their DPA social
worker, they were able to regain custody of their
children. Others report completing substance abuse
treatment and staying clean. Still others have obtained
job training, maintained employment, and paid victim
restitution and fines.
Owensboro Social
Worker, Rachel Pate,
BSW graduate of
Brescia University,
helped her 42 year
old client turn his life
around. He had been
arrested 32 times on
drug charges,
fleeing and evading,
and alcohol
charges. His
criminal activity began when he was a child.
Yet, no one had ever successfully explained chemical
dependency and his options for recovery. Rachel gave him
the hope he needed through alternatives to incarceration.
The client has remained in treatment and recovery. The
inpatient treatment program reported he is on the road to
recovery.
DPA social workers are providing a missing link between
the criminal justice system and the treatment community.
DPA social workers are providing a missing link between the
criminal justice system and the treatment community. Rachel
worked with the River Valley Case Management providers
to help change their policy and procedures regarding the
incarcerated population. “As part of Rachel’s advocacy,
River Valley Comprehensive Care Center developed a policy
that our case managers would provide services to mentally
ill inmates prior to their being released from jail, thereby,
assuring that mentally ill clients receive the seamless
services,” said Karen Thompson, Director of Case
Management, River Valley Comp. Care.
DPA social workers work closely with drug court officials.
Morehead Social Worker, Sarah Grimes, MSW and graduate
of the University of Kentucky, worked with a client facing 1-
5 years in prison. Sarah composed a treatment
recommendation plan including a drug court referral. The
client was granted a 3 year diversion, contingent on her
successful completion of Rowan County Drug Court. Since
entering drug court the client has had all negative urine drug
screens and met all requirements of drug court.
DPA social workers are experts in working with juvenile
offenders, who without early intervention, are at risk of
becoming adult offenders. “I worked with a 15 year old
juvenile who was to be charged as an adult on two charges
including burglary 1st and robbery 1st. He was also suspended
from school for two years. After her intervention, the client
returned all the stolen items and made restitution. He was
deeply remorseful for his actions. He came to understand
his addiction to marijuana. He entered substance abuse
recovery and individual
counseling, for family problems.
He was admitted back into high
school. Today, he plays football
for Warren County High School.
The judge gave him a second
chance and now he has the tools
to succeed,” described Kita
Clement, MSW, a graduate of
Western University School of
Social Work.
DPA’s Budget Request
DPA is requesting $2.3 million in FY09 and $2.4 million in
FY10 to expand this social worker program to every field
office and to post-trials. This will be an investment that will
pay off in real dollars by reducing incarceration levels. In
addition, lives will be repaired and restored and communities
will be healed.
Through the combined effort of the Social Worker Pilot
Project, DPA is better able to address the complex economic
and social needs of our most troubled clients. Our social
workers clearly made a difference in the lives of the 361
clients served during the Pilot. DPA’s client’s success can
be counted as a success for the criminal justice system.
“Every client whose life is restored today is less likely to
re-enter the criminal justice system tomorrow,” says Ernie
Lewis, “I am hopeful the 2008 Kentucky legislature will
find value in the Social Worker Pilot and fully fund social
worker in the 26 remaining defender offices in 2009-10.
