By Law Enforcement Referrals

Engagements with Law Enforcement Referrals

As you can see by the graph below, contact with individuals that had a referral via law enforcement was pretty light under Gather and increased dramatically under Destination Hope & Recovery. This struck me as an interesting data point given that neither Gather nor Destination Hope and Recovery generate LE referrals in and of themselves.

Program Differences and Difficulties

Note, when Gather Church operated the RNP, the Program Manger was Cascade Community Healthcare. Later, before RNP was transitioned to Destination Hope & Recovery, the management piece was rolled into Great Rivers. So you effectively move from having three parties to two.

I want to highlight a snippet, from March of 2022, where Cascade is discussing various issues facing the establishment of the RNP (fidelity to LEAD, communication, etc):

We do not agree with Gather going into agencies or stakeholders to discuss RNP as this is the role of the project manager. We would like to have a clear understanding of the roles and have them clearly defined. As time progresses there is less clarity regarding defined roles, and this has potential to harm the project.

Then, later in July of 2022, we find a similar report (bold emphasis mine):

There also seems to be an un-named shift in the dynamic with Project Manager (Cascade Community Healthcare) and the case management/outreach provider (Gather Church). With the formation of OWG there is more power sharing required and there seems to be an un-identified uncomfortableness there. There may be triangulation occurring and communication does not seem straightforward. There seems to be a focus on how the project manager is interacting with community members and that engagement is at fault of this writer and there is campaigning for Cole (Gather) to engage with community members, police officers and prosecuting attorney without the project manager.

Given the vagueness of the reporting, it's difficult to determine just what this un-named shift was, but, taken together with the former statement, it seems reasonable to assume that Gather Church was limited in interacting with stakeholders (due to role responsibilities) whereas Destination Hope & Recovery appears to be able to engage on their own.

I found the following in Destination Hope & Recovery's monthly report for August 2023:

Throughout the quarter, our Recovery Navigator Program actively collaborated with law enforcement to effectively accept referrals and divert individuals from the criminal legal system. During the month of August, we engaged in productive meetings with several local police departments. Notable interactions included discussions with Chief Denham of Centralia and Commander Evers, who generously provided us with a comprehensive tour of the Centralia Police Department. Additionally, we established connections with Lewis County Sheriff Office's Jail Chief Sweet, securing access to the jail facility as required.

None of this is to be taken as putting any blame on a party whether it be Gather or Cascade. I'm simply drawing attention to the fact that there are some apparent and important structural differences of program operation between the two providers.

DHR reports in September 2023:

In September, our Recovery Navigator Program engaged in a collaborative outreach project with the Centralia Police Department. Chief Denham, Commander Evers, and Commander Caldwell were the Centralia Police that guided this project. Through this partnership, we successfully garnered referrals and established connections with clients. This experience also provided us with valuable insights into demographic areas with which we had limited prior familiarity.

A few items of note. 1) This appears to have been driven by Centralia PD and 2) DHR acknowledges they have "limited prior familiarity" regarding demographic areas.

Having said that, it appears from the monthly reporting that DHR continues ongoing "outreach events" with Centralia PD on a regular basis. From the outside looking in, these outreach events appear to be targeted ride-alongs. I believe this is likely the source of the increased law enforcement referrals as seen in the data. If this is the case, it bodes well for referrals but I have some concerns regarding effectiveness that I'll get to later on.

This seems to differ from the ongoing issues Cascade recorded regarding LE while Gather Church operated RNP:

Cascade report from June 2022:

There are some challenges with engagement and moving forward. I am not sure why law enforcement is hesitant. There are significant staffing issues with Centralia PD and there is an election that may be causing some friction as a Centralia PD officer is running against the sheriff and the east end police are fully in support of Lewis County Sheriff and there has been some private conversation that this could be a barrier.

This isn't to say that Centralia PD wasn't involved, there's plenty of reporting that they were in some capacity. But, there is a lot of reporting around issues the program faced during Gather's operation that I think contributed to difficulties. Issues involving politics, data sharing, and privacy concerns. I'll cover these in other sections.

Engagement Outcomes with Law Enforcement Referrals

Looking at the graph above, we can see that the primary outcome for engagements with individuals having a law enforcement referral is "Unsuccesful Contact Attempt" coming in at 51%. If we use this to gauge future engagements based off of a law enforcement referral, this could be understood to indicate your chances of succesfully locating the person are 50-50 on any given attempt.

This is the biggest concern I have regarding Destination Hope & Recovery's apparent primary engagement method: outreach events with law enforcement. While in theory it makes sense, I think it might be difficult to establish the necessary trusting relationship with potential participants who are considered at risk of criminal legal system contact.

While the program was modeled off of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, and therefore should be heavily engaged in law enforcement referrals, I think the law enforcement presence might need to be reconsidered.

Engagement Outcomes with Law Enforcement Referrals by Month

The following is a month-to-month breakdown of engagement outcomes with those who have law enforcement referrals.