SEATTLE -- King County officials working with the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program met with Congresswoman Suzan DelBene Friday morning.
LEAD has been used in the area since 2011 as an alternative to help those suffering from substance abuse issues.
Service workers help participants with anything from housing, to job placement, to drug treatment, though participants aren’t required to be sober.
“The opioid crisis is tearing apart families across the country, including in Washington state,” DelBene said. “Instead of arresting and prosecuting low-level drug offenders, we should be supporting successful programs like LEAD that direct them to the services and help they need — reducing costs and recidivism in our criminal-justice system.”
Since LEAD started, criminal recidivism rates have been reduced among participants by as much as 60 percent, according to a University of Washington study.
King County Sheriff John Urquhart says the program has forced his officers to shift their thinking about drugs.
“The police are very good at a lot of things. And one of the things we’re good at is being a hammer. The problem is, when you’re a hammer every problem is a nail. And for so long we have looked at drug abuse and drug sales as a nail that we needed to hammer.”
Urquhart says LEAD’s success is evident on Seattle’s streets.
“It’s a whole different way of thinking that actually works,” said Urquhart.
Turina James has been in the program for three years. She says there’s nothing else like it, and that’s why it works.
“[LEAD] gives you an opportunity to rise above your addiction at your own pace.”
James has been sober for six months, but says she was never pressured by her case manager to get clean.
“[LEAD] makes us feel human,” said James.
Lisa Daugaard, policy director for the King County Public Defender Association, says treatment is important but it’s not everything.
Case workers don’t talk about treatment with participants right off the bat. Daugaard says this actually leads to deeper relationships within the program, which often lead to treatment down the road.
Earlier this month, the House passed the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act (H.R. 5046), which included an amendment from DelBene ensuring resources are available to scale-up LEAD.
Najja Morris, LEAD case manager supervisor, says as the program expands, the number of participants to case workers must remain low to replicate the program’s success.
“With LEAD it really is quality over quantity,” says Morris.
As officials wait for Congress to appropriate the $515 million for state, local and tribal grants made available by H.R. 5046, LEAD will continue to build deep relationships in the Seattle community on a smaller scale.
“Without LEAD a lot of people would be lost,” says James.
