BOISE, Idaho — Jeff Middleton knows firsthand the challenges of being released from jail and trying to find a job — all while trying to stay clean from a drug addiction.
Middleton was a pharmacist and got caught stealing prescription opioids at work. He went to jail and lost his pharmacist license.
“When I came through the court system, there was really nothing going on for recovery,” he said in an interview. “I was an opiate addict and that was my drug of choice.”
Now, some 12 years later, Middleton, 69, runs Boise Vertical Farm, a “second-chance employer,” working with people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. The farm works with people referred by the court system seeking to fulfill mandated community service.
The farm, tucked away on an acre of land off Castle Drive in the Collister neighborhood in northwest Boise, gives workers skills and refers them to other employers or educational institutions, Middleton said.
I spoke to Middleton and Boise Vertical Farm co-founder Crystal Spencer about what they see as the greatest needs in working with people in recovery and being released from jail or prison. Their experience on the front lines could help inform how Idaho should spend an estimated $218 million coming to the state as part of the national legal settlements with opioid makers and distributors.
Few resources for addiction
Because he had lost his pharmacist license, Middleton had no means of employment when he was released from jail, so he reached out to Spencer, who was director of research for St. Luke’s at the time.
She was interested in helping people dealing with addiction, and Boise Vertical Farm was born.
“There are very little resources, once they’ve reached a certain point of recovery, they’ve pretty much gotten dumped out on their own,” Spencer said in an interview she and Middleton did with me in a greenhouse at the farm. “While there are resources, they’re not cohesive, and they’re not what I’ll call patient-centered. They don’t make it easy for the individuals to navigate that system or to even know what resources they have available to them.”
Middleton agreed that efforts to fight addiction and aid recovery should be more centralized. Currently, it’s too spread out, he said.
That’s why he’s not encouraged by the current proposal to divide Idaho’s pool of opioid settlement money among the state, all 44 counties, several cities, some special districts and all seven public health districts.
Because the money is so spread out, no agency is getting a big chunk of money, and there’s very little coordination among agencies.
Further, Middleton notes that the 12-page list of more than 100 eligible uses of the money is so long and broad, agencies getting money could spend it on just about anything.
Legal obligations
Middleton and Spencer said they’ve seen the same challenges I’ve heard from others who are battling drug addiction and navigating the criminal justice system while trying to get back on their feet: housing, treatment, jobs and transportation.
“These people, when they come through, they’re extremely busy,” Middleton said. “They have mandatory drug testing, they have to go to mandated meetings, and so quite frequently, they’re missing appointments. If they’re not very organized, they’re in trouble.”
And that adds stress, and stress can increase the chances of relapse.
At the same time, Middleton said, many addicts have lost their families and their only support system.
“We’ve put so much burden on them on the legal side of it that their ability even if they do get themselves clean and if they do come around, they can’t get integrated back into society like the rest of us are able to do,” Spencer said. “I mean, they can’t get the jobs, they can’t get loans, they can’t get housing, cars, all those things. So no wonder recidivism is high. It’s discouraging.”
Spencer said they have legal obligations — showing up for drug tests, reporting to a parole agent or court-ordered treatment — and need to be flexible in their job to make those appointments.
Having a full-time, temporary job with an employer who understands the need for flexibility would go a long way toward success.
“So they can be working and learning skills and working in an environment that also can accommodate them to help them get through the rest of that recovery process,” Spencer said.
“That’s the hardest part is getting a job if you have an arrest for a drug charge,” Middleton said. “It’s very hard to get a job.”
Further, Middleton said, individuals with a record often end up in work environments, such as bars and restaurants, that might not be clean and sober, so they end up relapsing when they’re around others who drink and use drugs.
Community service
Last year, 40 people worked at Boise Vertical Farm, and only three relapsed, Middleton said.
But Boise Vertical Farm doesn’t pay the people who work there. The workers are there fulfilling community service hours.
The farm survives on a small budget from grants, plant sales and the farmers market.
The farm works with such people as those convicted of DUI or drug possession charges. Community service requirements can be anywhere from 32 hours to 100 or even 200 hours.
Community service sounds great and has a sense of reparation to the community.
However, for someone addicted to drugs or alcohol, just getting out of prison or jail, now with a record, struggling to find housing and full-time employment, trying to make ends meet and trying to fend off their addiction, the added burden of having to find time to get to community service makes recovery all the more difficult.
A good use of opioid settlement money would be to fund places like Boise Vertical Farm, not as court-mandated community service but as a temporary, full-time job for someone dealing with addiction and charged with a drug crime.
But as a society, we’re more focused on the punitive side of things.
“There’s too much focus on a punitive aspect and not enough focus on it being a health issue that we need to address,” Spencer said. “We tend to shuffle people into the court system, and then that’s where their management occurs, through the court system, and that’s just not the right place.”
When someone gets arrested on a drug or alcohol charge, “We need to siphon those folks back into a health recovery process of some sort of therapy, health-based therapy,” she said.
One study found that every dollar spent on substance use disorder treatment saves $4 in health care costs and $7 in criminal justice costs. That’s a phenomenal return on investment.
Reduce recidivism
The goal here is to reduce recidivism, and keep people from coming back time and again.
Sawyer Morrison and Siena Thompson, two Boise women I interviewed earlier for this series, have been in and out of the criminal justice system multiple times, costing taxpayers each time they go to court and go to jail or prison.
There are going to be some, particularly ideologically dogmatic conservatives, who scoff at the notion of the government stepping in and “helping” addicts who have broken the law.
But fiscal conservatives should keep this in mind: We’re already paying for these folks. We’re paying for police to arrest them, we’re paying judges and lawyers to adjudicate their cases, and we’re paying for their housing and food when they’re incarcerated. And while they’re incarcerated, they’re doing nothing of value to society.
And it’s clear what we’re doing isn’t working for most people.
“Putting people in prison has never worked, and it’s never going to work,” Middleton said. “And it’s just contrary to what the disease of addiction is.”
