Rebuilding Lives. Strengthening Communities.

Reforms with Citywide Impact
Increase access to and availability of community-based treatment
programs to address prisoners’ health-related issues.
Recommendation
MAYORAL POLICY CAUCUS ON PRISONER REENTRY
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Issue
The potential costs of not addressing health-related needs
of reentering prisoners are high. Prisoners on prescribed
medications are often released with a limited supply of
medications or none at all. Those released with contagious
diseases risk infecting others within the community
if treatment is interrupted. Lack of treatment for drug or
alcohol addiction may result in unemployment, criminal
behavior and recidivism. Lack of treatment for chronic
conditions may lead to higher long-term public health
costs. Maintaining one’s health is a key factor for successful
reentry.
This problem cannot be solved simply by building better
hospitals in prison. Prisoners need access to communitybased
health services after discharge, and prisons need to
collaborate with these community providers to improve
continuity between pre-release and post-release health
care. Such measures, while effective, would stretch the
capacity of these already-strained community agencies.
If more reliance is placed on community programs that
provide drug and mental health treatment, the number
and capacity of these agencies needs to be greatly expanded.
Currently, depending on geographic location and type of
service needed, waiting lists for community-based drug
treatment programs in Chicago may be so long that most
released prisoners will relapse and/or be rearrested before
they are accepted into a program. 68 “There is a 90 percent
failure rate for drug offenders released right to the
“You really need to have programs set up
where you’re meeting someone at the
gate when they come out. If someone
was at the gate the very day of discharge,
someone that had the social
skills to help this person in society, then
that would make all the difference in
the world. Because if a positive person
isn’t meeting them at the gate, then
the dope dealer will.”
Rev. Larry Smith
Assistant Pastor, United Baptist Church
community, because there is nothing available,” explains
Dr. Dan Lustig, Associate Director of Clinical Services at
Haymarket Center. “If you go to the county hospital for
service, you’ll end up waiting 12 hours for service, and
that’s on a good day. An addict isn’t going to wait. He’s
going to get high.” 69
Haymarket Center’s operations illustrate the grave drug
treatment shortages throughout the city. Over 60 percent
of the center’s clients were involved with the criminal
justice system during the 90 days prior to their arrival at
Haymarket. Of those clients who had actually served
time, 98 percent had not received any drug treatment in
prison or jail. The prison system refers around 4,000
prisoners a year directly to Haymarket, which has the
capacity to service around five percent of those individuals.
Although Haymarket refers individuals it cannot assist to
other drug treatment providers, waiting lists around the
city are comparable to its own. “The result,” says Lustig,
“is formerly incarcerated drug addicts are roaming the city
in what is likely to be an unsuccessful search for treatment.
The goal here has to be immediate access.” 70
Meanwhile, mental health services are increasingly in
short supply around the nation, and Illinois is in worse
shape than most states. Although the state ranks 9th in per
capita wealth, it ranks 39th in mental health funding. 71