Jail Discharge Program Aims to Help Homeless Inmates

Bringing Our Community Home launches the effort to keep the homeless from being sent back to the streets

By Daniella Elghanayan | Published on 12.15.2009

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Bringing Our Community Home, the organization coordinating the 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Santa Barbara County, has announced the launch of the Homeless Inmate Jail Discharge Planning Program and the hire of the first discharge planner.

The program is in collaboration with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department and is designed to prevent homeless people from being sent back to the streets when they are released from the county jail.

Because there are a limited number of beds for homeless people with mental illness, chronic alcoholism and substance abuse, jail has become the largest de facto in-patient psychiatric and detox facility in the county. They serve their time, depending on the offense, and are released back to the streets — most often to the same circumstances that landed them in jail. For many homeless, this is a revolving door that has proven to be unsuccessful — and expensive to the public. The new program offers pre-release intervention to ensure the person has a place to live, a way to get there, and the supportive services needed to address the causes of their homelessness.

“I am optimistic that this program will achieve lasting results,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. “I appreciate the partnership we’ve established to solve the problem of chronic homelessness and the impact it’s having on those in our jail.”

Discharge planning is part of Bringing Our Community Home’s Prevention and Intervention strategy and is another form of outreach to the homeless. The 25-hour per week discharge planner position, which will serve the whole county, is funded through a $14,000 grant from the city of Santa Barbara, a $15,000 grant from Santa Barbara County and a $5,000 grant from The Fund for Santa Barbara.

Tona Wakefield has been selected for the Homeless Inmate Discharge Planner position. Before starting the job in November, Wakefield worked as a family advocate for the Mental Health Association in Santa Barbara County. She also serves on the county’s Advisory Board on Drug and Alcohol Problems, and as a member of the Criminal Justice Task Force and Restorative Policing Task Group.

As discharge planner, Wakefield is responsible for identifying and working with homeless inmates to develop case histories and connect them with a past or new case worker to ensure that the effort to develop relationships of trust so essential to bringing a person in from the streets is maintained. Additionally, she will actively work to help place homeless inmates in permanent housing upon release, with the supportive services they need to maintain residency.

“Discharge planning is a critical step in the implementation phase of the 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness,” said John Buttny, executive director of Bringing Our Community Home. “Jail discharge planning was one of the biggest gaps in terms of our outreach to the homeless — second only to the lack of availability of housing — and outreach is the key to success.”

Experience from programs across the county shows that homeless people, especially those with mental illness, respond best to those people they have developed relationships with. Many, if not all, homeless people who end up in jail, will already have had contact with street outreach workers and case workers. Placing a homeless inmate dscharge planner in the jail will complete the cycle of contact and improve the likelihood of a homeless person accepting the supportive services that are available in the community.

If permanent housing is not available, Wakefield will work to discharge homeless individuals to transitional housing programs, including homeless shelters, residential drug or alcohol treatment programs, one of the more than 30 sober living homes throughout the county, and any other appropriate residential setting. The Jail Discharge Planning Program also will provide transportation for all homeless inmates upon release. Experience has shown that releasing inmates on their own often results in a rapid breakdown of the discharge plan.

Experience from around the county indicates that it takes a minimum three-month stay to break the cycle of living on the streets.

One of the prevention and intervention strategies of the 10-Year Plan is to ensure vigilant discharge planning from all of the institutional settings which typically release homeless people back to the streets, including hospitals, jails, detox and other treatment programs, and the foster care system. Discharge planning occurs before an individual leaves an institution and involves creating links between the individual and the services and support the individual will need upon leaving including housing, services, treatment, and benefits/employment.

“It is gratifying to see the work of Bringing Our Community Home and the many individuals and agencies and local foundation support turning the 10 Year Plan into tangible improvements,” Buttny said. “We thank all of those involved in implementing the program.”

In 2008, Bringing Our Community Home began the implementation of the 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Santa Barbara County, with initial funding including major support from The Fund for Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Hutton Foundation and the St. Francis Foundation. The cities of Santa Barbara, Lompoc and Carpinteria and Santa Barbara County, and philanthropists Sara Miller McCune and Chuck Blitz also provided financial support.

— Daniella Elghanayan is a publicist.

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» Daniel Petry on 12.16.09 @ 07:35 AM

I hear a lot of - we should, we can, we will, we have.  I do see expenses.  I don’t see any numbers of releases or what the parameters are for judging a success.  If you don’t have them…where are examples?  Daniel Petry

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» Jan Winter on 12.16.09 @ 08:14 AM

NAMI members in the community who have mentally ill loved ones benefited enormously from Tona Wakefield’s counsel and referral and advocacy during the time she was our Family Advocate.  The community will continue to benefit from her excellent knowledge of resources and many contacts here for persons whose offenses are often the result of untreated mental illness and/or homelessness. This is a very important new program.  I hope it will continue to be funded.
Jan Winter

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» Chaplain Kathy Davis on 12.16.09 @ 09:30 AM

This is a need that the homeless and their advocates have been passionate about for years.  The revolving door needs to stop.  The homeless, especially women and the mentally ill, no longer need to worry about being released in the middle of the night with no public transportation, sometimes miles from where they stay. We are seeing the 10- Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness beginning to make real differences. Tona Wakefield’s credentials are a perfect fit for this new program. Thanks to the agencies and philanthropists who provided financial support for this program. You are making a real difference in the lives of those on the street.

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» DAVE on 12.16.09 @ 04:26 PM

THIS IS SANTA BARBARA AT ITS VERY BEST!  Thank you!

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» I think this is good on 12.16.09 @ 11:15 PM

I know mental illness is out there, and we need to cut government staff and wages in parks and rec and all the other services that should be sub contracted out.. This is a real government service that is needed real civil servant work—unlike most overpaid over staffed union waste—

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