McShin Foundation, AG Mark Herring help launch RSW Jail rehab program

State Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring visited the Rappahannock-Shenandoah-Warren (RSW) Regional Jail on Friday, December 14, along with several local and state Republicans including Delegate Todd Gilbert, R-15th and county Supervisor and RSW Authority Board member Dan Murray. The occasion was the launching of a McShin Foundation substance-abuse rehab program at the jail.

The event was cited as a bipartisan effort to help fight a drug-abuse problem that knows no partisan boundaries as it sweeps across the nation blind to economic or social class, racial or ethnic heritage.

Jails aren’t often thought of as ‘houses of hope’ – but a new peer-to-peer McShin Foundation-sponsored rehab program’s goal is just that – bring hope to inmates whose battle with addiction has led to criminality.

Event organizers were John Shinholser (McShin President), Christopher Ronquest (Virginia Recovery and Re-Entry Project Director), Kate Obenshain Keeler (McShin Advisory Council) and RSW Jail Superintendent Russ Gilkison, in collaboration with SAMHSA, Recovery Connection, and Grace Downtown.

The afternoon gathering of social and political luminaries from around Virginia celebrated the opening of an innovative, peer-to-peer based program designed to help facilitate the recovery journey for incarcerated individuals with Substance Use Disorders. RSW Superintendent Gilkison was lauded for bringing the program to the facility.

“This is a coming together – thank you so much for opening up this jail for this program,” Obenshain Keeler told Gilkison. In her opening remarks, Obenshain Keeler noted that she had once been part of the “lock them up and throw away the key” contingent regarding drug abuse until it struck close to home – in fact, in her home in the person of her oldest child. She called her experience an eye-opening “walk through the Gates of Hell” and dismissed political differences in approaching the drug problem as “ridiculous”.

McShin Foundation Advisory Council member Kate Obenshain Keeler told the crowd it’s easy to stereotype drug abusers until you are confronted with the reality of substance abuse close to home.

Gilbert agreed. The Shenandoah County-based Republican House delegate referenced his legal experience on both sides of the prosecution and defense fence. He said particularly from his work as a defense attorney he felt that “99.8% of the people in the criminal justice system are simply struggling with issues” ranging from how they were brought up to how they learned to cope with problems on the streets.

Virginia Attorney General Herring called the mission to help Virginia citizens rehabilitate their lives “a very personal one” from his role at the top of the state legal apparatus – “This is something that can happen to any of us.”

Noting the large percentage of people present who had raised their hands when asked to acknowledge they were in long-term recovery from substance abuse, Herring said, “What gives me hope – YOU. I don’t see a room full of bad people.”

The attorney general noted his department’s intention of filing suit against one pharmaceutical company – Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of myriad opioid-based products including OxyContin – for misleading advertising about those products.

Attorney General Mark Herring drew an appreciative reaction when he told the crowd of his office’s intention of filing suit against one pharmaceutical company a justice department investigation was ready to prosecute for intentionally minimizing the addictive qualities of its product.

Online research indicates a 2006 government report concluded that while Purdue Pharma knew about “significant” abuse and addictive patterns of behavior by OxyContin users in the first years after the drug’s introduction in 1996, it concealed that information and continued to promote the drug as “less addictive”.

“Based on their findings after a four-year investigation, the prosecutors recommended that three top Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States that could have sent the men to prison if convicted. But top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration did not support the move, said four lawyers who took part in those discussions or were briefed about them. Instead the government settled the case in 2007,” a report summary stated.

I guess some are slow to learn the non-partisan lessons of drug abuse – and responsibility, even corporate, for pushing addictive drugs for profit.

The media spoke with Attorney General Herring prior to the official start of Friday’s program.

AG Herring stressed a multi-faceted statewide response to substance abuse, mixing education and prevention with recovery and hope for the future.

“Addiction has its roots in the medicine cabinet – so addiction can happen to any of us,” Herring said, echoing a theme that would be repeated often during the coming introductory program. “And so it is critical that we have a multi-faceted response, which we have, and a key piece of it is treatment and recovery. And I have come to know the recovery community well over the years and seen how peer-to-peer services like what McShin does is very often the key to successful recovery. And we’re going to work really hard to get information out through our education and prevention efforts about the dangers of opioids, how addictive these drugs are; but also a key part of the message is that it is possible to live a successful life through recovery.

“And a lot of people have had the courage to reach out for help, and you know it’s hard work but there are a lot of people who are willing to help. And that kind of support is really essential in order to help people recover. So, the message is twofold – not only do we want to let people know about the danger of these drugs, but also that there is hope for recovery.”

McShin Foundation President John Shinholser moderated the RSW Jail rehab program launch event before and appreciative audience.

The Virginia Recovery and Re-Entry Project, facilitated by The McShin Fountain, is part of the Building Communities of Recovery (BCOR) funding opportunity from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Through this project, two new Substance Use Disorder Recovery Programs are being implemented in RSW Regional Jail and Riverside Regional Jail.

In addition, a re-entry component to the project will take place through The McShin Foundation in Richmond, VA, providing housing and recovery support services to individuals as they re-enter society. Through this project, the participating organizations hope to reduce the rate of recidivism and the negative consequences created by Substance Use Disorders by providing authentic peer-to-peer services and a multi-disciplinary approach to recovery.

The McShin Foundation was founded in 2004 and is Virginia’s leading non-profit, full-service Recovery Community Organization (RCO), committed to serving individuals and families in their fight against Substance Use Disorders.

Special acknowledgement was given to the team that would bring the program to RSW inmates and program co-sponsors from the Recovery Connection and Grace Downtown. One of those team members, known as “Cricket”, spoke of how “something clicked in me” when the type of message of hope he is now bringing to others, was first delivered to him in a time of need for rehabilitative guidance.

Surrounded by fellow program team members, ‘Cricket’ explains how he received the message of hope for long-term recovery he now helps pass on to others.

Cricket pointed to 23 volunteers bringing the program to RSW – “every one in long-term recovery” as both McShin President Shinholser and the event invocation Pastor Brad Hill of Grace of Downtown in Winchester both acknowledged they were.  As one of the principals of the Winchester-based Recovery Connection Program told the crowd, “I celebrate another day clean so I can show up to give a message of hope to others.”

Warren County North River Supervisor and RSW Authority Board Member Dan Murray, left, greets Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring at the rehab program launch event.

RSW Superintendent Russ Gilkison, left, and Del. Todd Gilbert, right, flank the food table security line. Gilbert and Kate Obenshain Keeler appear to have spotted a potential table raider in the media ranks.