Metro Court seeks to break 'a vicious cycle' by getting inmates into drug treatment

Tamara Swanson and Maria Lopez have something in common: both have overdosed on opiates after being released from jail. But they could also be considered the lucky ones, still breathing and eking out a life on Albuquerque’s streets.

Andrea Santee, another woman existing within the city’s margins, said she knows several who didn’t make it, those she considered friends. People like Swanson and Lopez.

Santee has to use both hands to count them all.

Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court recently launched a program to fight the rising tide of overdose deaths related to fentanyl by connecting some of the most at-risk — those recently released from jail — to treatment and resources. Last year, fentanyl was involved in at least 574 overdoses across New Mexico

Santee called the idea behind it fantastic. At best, a buffer between life and death.

“It gives people a leeway between the jail and streets — that’s the biggest concern is them not having anywhere to go,” she said. “Whether they have money in their pocket or they have to panhandle, the first thing they’re going to do is use. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Named the Overdose Prevention, Treatment and Intervention Court, or “OPT-In,” the program is modeled after a similar one in Buffalo, New York. It’s also a collaborative effort with buy-in from the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office and the Law Offices of the Public Defender.

Metro Court Judge Claire McDaniel, who battled a heroin addiction herself more than a decade ago, spearheaded the diversion program. Since April 19, the program has identified 147 people who were booked into MDC with a high risk of overdose.

She called OPT-In “a different approach” toward drug users.

“We’re trying to treat them with dignity and respect and make them feel human again, and give them what the appropriate treatment is,” she said. “... We’re being very realistic. We know you can’t cure addiction, it’s a lifelong struggle. It really is just about getting people to not die and get their feet in the door of treatment and on a path to recovery.”

Between 2019 and mid-2022, fentanyl killed at least 1,215 people in New Mexico, a number that has surely risen since.

The way it works

When someone is booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on a felony charge, they speak with Metro Court’s background investigators. With OPT-In, several questions have been added to that conversation to learn if someone is at risk of overdose upon release from MDC.

Questions like: Do you use drugs alone? Have you overdosed in the past? Do you mix opiates with other drugs, particularly alcohol or benzodiazepines like Xanax?

“And if you’re a fentanyl user, that already pretty much qualifies you of being someone at risk of overdose,” McDaniel said. She added, “with fentanyl, it seems like things are falling apart for people much faster. ... And it’s a lot more lethal.”

If they are flagged as high-risk, the OPT-In team will determine if the person is “a good fit” for the program, which must be agreed upon by the prosecution and defense. Those charged with murder, manslaughter or sexual offenses are not eligible.

If accepted into OPT-In, Metro Court will coordinate the person’s release from jail and placement into detox services or treatment within the community.

“Our program will facilitate a warm handoff at every point and cut the red tape in recognition that these people are in survival mode,” McDaniel said. “And if they’re released without any of this, they’re at risk of overdose or recidivism, and going right back into jail on new charges.”

While in the program, participants will also meet with OPT-In case managers weekly, meet with McDaniel monthly for status conferences and have access to methadone or suboxone treatment.

Once successfully completing the program, the person’s criminal case will be dismissed with prejudice, meaning charges can’t be refiled, and they will have access to the OPT-In case manager for “long-term support or care.”

McDaniel said, due to the high need, she knows there are going to be limitations, a waiting list and barriers — such as inpatient programs that don’t allow methadone. But she is not dissuaded.

“We have to work within those limitations,” McDaniel said. “There’s all these weird things that we haven’t even thought of but there’s such a need in the community. We’re just trying to get off the ground and running.”

The Law Offices of the Public Defender and 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman have both expressed support for OPT-In and the mission.

“It is encouraging to see our courts acting on the fact that we can’t arrest and jail our way out of addiction issues,” LOPD Albuquerque District Defender Dennica Torres said. “It recognizes that people suffering through addiction have other challenges in their lives that make it so hard to get and stay sober, this court program and prosecutor buy-in has the potential to support substantial improvement in our clients’ lives and in our community.”

Bregman said his office is “all for it,” calling fentanyl a “huge driver of crime in our community.”

“We want this program to save lives and we want people to get out of this cycle of crime because they’re feeding their addiction,” he said. “We want people to get the resources they need and hopefully (they’ll) never be seen in the criminal justice system again.”

In the alleyways and nooks along East Central, groups of people gathered in the shade. Several could be seen smoking fentanyl off a piece of foil or through a tube, using their shirt to block the wind. Amongst the crowds, one man had a gunshot wound on his ankle that had become infected, another said he came from Grants to get his sister off the streets and back home, but she wouldn’t have it.

Nearby, Barbara Saavedra and Tomas Ball sit against the wall of an abandoned building. Ball, 33, said the OPT-In program is a start for people battling opioid addiction — “getting their foot in the door.”

He and Saavedra lamented that the deck is stacked so high against those on the streets: without a shower, without clean clothes, who can get a job? And what is the motivation then to get clean? Ball said a lot of people just give up.

“There’s just so many people out here that need so much help,” Saavedra put it plainly. “... Not enough positive things out here for us.”

But, they both agreed, this could be one of those things.