KEWAUNEE, Wis. (NBC 26) — In Kewaunee County, Sheriff Matt Joski hopes a little box of nasal inhalers can be part of the road to recovery.
"We may not be part of their entire journey to come out of addiction, but we can be part of that initial journey," he said. "We can plant the seed."
The county jail is set to offer Narcan at no cost to inmates after their release. The program is in collaboration with the Badger State Sheriffs' Association and the Department of Health Services.
"There's the humanistic side," Joski said. "There's a compassionate side that these are human beings. These are our neighbors. These are members of our community and we've got to do everything we can to try to bring them back from that addiction."
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, "recently incarcerated people are over 40 times more likely to die from an opioid overdose."
"Those days and weeks and months initially after release, those are when people tend to relapse," Joski said.
He expects the program to be up and running in the next 30 days. And when that happens, families and visitors of inmates will see fliers around the department.
"The Narcan itself is not enabling," Jackie Nitschke Center Clinical Supervisor Tina Marie Baeten said. "It's not providing someone with a high or a fix. In fact, if anything, people get pretty upset about it sometimes when they're brought back. Because they're into immediate withdrawal."
Baeten has worked with a number of patients who have been saved by Narcan.
"For some, the overdose experience is a huge reality check and they do go enter a program or recovery," she said. "They do recognize the seriousness and magnitude of their illness."
The sheriff says it's also a resource for families of former inmates.
"That ultimately should be our goal, not just incarceration and release, but really changing lives," Joski said.
Taking a look at the most recent statistics from the DHS, in Northeast Wisconsin, Manitowoc had 16 opioid deaths in 2020. Fond du Lac County had 25. In Winnebago County, there were 33. And in Brown County, 34 people died due to opioids in 2020. In total, there were over 1,200 opioid deaths in Wisconsin.
