Q&A
Discussion on peer specialists in treatment courts
5:25:24
·
3 min
Council Member Linda Lee inquires about the challenges of incorporating peer specialists into the treatment court system, particularly for veterans. Helen Skipper, speaking from her roles in various organizations, responds by highlighting the importance of peer involvement in the criminal justice system and treatment courts.
- Skipper emphasizes the need to change gatekeepers who allow people into treatment programs.
- She shares her personal experience of cycling through the system for 25 years due to lack of access to appropriate support.
- Skipper advocates for giving people with lived experience opportunities to succeed and model recovery for others in the system.
Linda Lee
5:25:24
Yes.
5:25:24
Thank you so much.
5:25:25
And sorry before you guys move.
5:25:27
I I just had a really quick question for you, Helen, because we had a joint hearing one time with the veterans committee.
5:25:36
Right?
5:25:36
And it was specifically about veteran treatment courts because they hadn't had a hearing since 2015.
5:25:42
And there was one person there.
5:25:45
He is the only peer specialist that works with the treatment courts And I was I was amazed at how much he does to help veterans, to help them understand not the veterans, but help the system and the folks that work in the criminal justice system to understand the importance of how to, like, stop someone from having to go to records versus getting that treatment that they need.
5:26:08
And so I guess my question is when you look at the larger treatment court system and I ask you this in your board of corrections role, what is the biggest barrier that we're facing?
5:26:16
Because in my mind, I just didn't understand why we wouldn't have so many more peer specialists that are part of that.
5:26:22
And so if you could sort of allude to what the challenges are there,
Helen Skipper
5:26:27
Let me speak on that also in my role as a member of the treatment of jail coalition.
5:26:32
We're fighting with OCA to approve the legislation.
5:26:37
There are pockets of pieces of information here and there where OCA is not backing down from.
5:26:43
We're trying to amend what we can without losing the essence.
5:26:49
The treatment not jail of coalition is just simply changing the gatekeepers.
5:26:56
Who allowed people into treatment.
5:26:59
And on myself, I could have been one of them.
5:27:02
I spent 25 years going in and out.
5:27:04
I came and addicted to drugs suffering from an unchecked mental illness with criminality because of the drug addiction and the mental illness.
5:27:14
But because of my record, I was always not given a program, which means I was criminalizing went to jail, rents him to repeat for 25 years.
5:27:23
If we allow people who need the support to access the support, you'd be amazed at some of the findings, recovery is real, second chances is real.
5:27:36
Give people an opportunity to succeed, give them what they need, and what we don't need is criminalization.
5:27:44
And, you know, I'm involved in a fight with OCA too because I keep going up to them saying, hey, would you hire me?
5:27:50
You know?
5:27:50
And I always hear yes, but we all know that that is not the case.
5:27:55
So we meet peers in the criminal justice system.
5:27:58
We meet peers in treatment court who better than to model and mentor.
5:28:04
And show that resiliency works.
5:28:07
You've heard my story before.
5:28:09
And it's it's not an individualistic story.
5:28:12
I mean, it it sounds hot because the way I tell it.
5:28:15
But other people have the same story You know, we came through, we persevered, we stood tall, and then we got tired, and we got access to recovery.
5:28:25
And we leaned into recovery, and we used that to spread our wings and push forward.
5:28:31
That happens all over.
5:28:32
But when we try to come back into these systems that had damaged us, that has traumatized us, will always stop.
5:28:41
Why?
5:28:42
Like, we should be the ones to be able to walk back in there and say, look, if I did it, so can you?
