RSW Jail, substance abuse rehab program mark progress with summit

From left, Diana Lieber, Chris Ronquest and Russ Gilkison explain and reflect on implementation and results from an aggressive, peer-based substance abuse recovery and reentry program at RSW Jail. Royal Examiner Photos. Video by Mark Williams.

On Thursday, August 8, Royal Examiner spoke with Virginia Recovery and Reentry (VRR) Program Project Director Christopher Ronquest of the McShin Foundation, McShin-RSW Jail Program Facilitator Diana Lieber and Rappahannock-Shenandoah-Warren County (RSW) Regional Jail Superintendent Russ Gilkison about the first eight months of implementation of an aggressively proactive effort to rehabilitate inmates dealing with substance abuse issues.

As Gilkison notes during our video interview, in addition to people convicted and jailed on drug offenses, many jailed on other criminal charges have substance abuse problems as a basis for that criminal activity.

And the VRR program launched at both RSW Jail and Prince George County’s Riverside Regional Jail last December takes direct aim at addiction and substance abuse through a peer-to-peer approach to recovery aimed at reducing criminal recidivism related to substance abuse and addiction. LINK-McShin Foundation, AG Mark Herring help launch RSW Jail rehab program

To mark the program’s personal success stories, stories that will remain in progress for the rest of participating inmates’ lives, the two jails and the Richmond-based McShin Foundation will hold a VRR Organizational Summit in southern Warren County on August 29, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mountain Bed & Breakfast at 3471 Remount Road. The event is open to the public.

RSW Superintendent Russ Gilkison welcomes Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, center, and McShin Foundation President John Shinholser to the Dec. 14, 2018 launch of the Virginia Recovery and Reentry Program at RSW.

In addition to program and jail officials the summit will include scholarship recipients from the VRR re-entry program. Those inmates now facing transition back into the world will tell their stories of hope for meaningful change in their lives brought to them through the partnership of the McShin Foundation’s Virginia Recovery and Re-Entry Program and the RSW and Riverside Jails.

The scholarships or grant offers will help fund 20-plus inmates, a majority from RSW, transition back toward productive lives away from the environments that led to their substance abuse and criminality, in residential recovery settings as they seek jobs and meaningful change in their lives.

As Ronquest, Lieber and Gilkison explain in our video interview, the heart of the VRR Program is that peer-to-peer interaction with program members and inmates who share a background in substance abuse and addiction. It is an approach that removes the “why don’t you straighten up and do something positive with your life” lecture to “this is how I overcame my addiction issues and have maintained sobriety, I think you can do it too” path of empathy and shared mutual experience.

Lieber, an Air Force veteran who is a volunteer program facilitator at RSW told us, “It is a win-win for everybody and a miracle to see in action”.

And that “everybody” who wins from the VRR Program includes you as a taxpaying member of this community. For when the pattern of behavior of addiction and associated criminality is broken, those inmates and VRR Program alumni are much less likely to return to that previous lifestyle and consequently are less likely to return to jail to be housed again for longer periods of time on the taxpayer’s dime.

Things are changing for the better in VRR Program pods inside the RSW Jail in northern Warren County.

The McShin Foundation was established 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. The VRR Programs at RSW and Riverside Jails was enabled by a matching grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s Building Communities of Recovery initiative.

Please watch the linked Royal Examiner video interview for more detail on the VRR Program, the upcoming summit, and the project’s potential to enable meaningful, positive change in individual lives and consequently in the life of, not only our community, but communities across the commonwealth.