Summary
King County’s new reentry initiative will help people transition from custody back into the community by connecting them with accessible healthcare, behavioral health and substance use treatment, and other supportive services, advancing Executive Zahilay’s Breaking the Cycle goal and reducing recidivism to create safer, healthier communities.
Story
Today, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay announced the rollout of an innovative reentry initiative that provides pre-release healthcare and care coordination for individuals in King County detention facilities. The initiative will connect more adults to support services prior to discharge, closing gaps in care during the sensitive transition back into the community and improving public health and safety outcomes
Supported as part of a statewide Reentry Demonstration Initiative through the Washington State Health Care Authority using federal and state funds, this initiative will allow King County adult correctional facilities to expand targeted services up to 90 days prior to release. In addition, it will enable youth in secure detention to maintain continuous Apple Health coverage. Washington was the second state to receive federal approval for a Medicaid reentry program and the second to officially launch its implementation.
“Breaking the cycle of homelessness, addiction, and repeated incarceration requires meeting people where they are and providing them with the tools they need to rebuild their lives and reintegrate in community,” said Executive Zahilay. “By expanding access to healthcare and other supportive reentry services, King County is working to replace the revolving door of the criminal legal system with a stable bridge to recovery and rehabilitation – creating safer, healthier communities as a result.”
Expanding Lifesaving Services in Adult Jails
In King County, nearly 70 percent of adult individuals in custody have stays of 10 days or less, and over 90 percent are released within 90 days of booking, with roughly 50 bookings and discharges occurring daily. This reentry initiative significantly expands on existing reentry services to help more people in more ways, stabilizing and improving their lives as they leave jail.
Research shows that connecting individuals to care and services before release improves health outcomes, reduces recidivism, and lowers costs. Effective reentry services – focused on helping people successfully rejoin their communities and not reoffend – advances holistic public safety.
The initiative went live this summer. As of July 1, reentry services are being expanded to reach more people incarcerated in King County jails. Services include:
- Medicaid eligibility determination and enrollment prior to discharge, so that patients can transition to health care in the community without gaps in coverage that could interrupt care.
- Reentry targeted case management, with individualized reentry plans linking patients directly to their managed care organization, community clinics and behavioral health providers, so that they receive continuous support in the community to help stabilize and rebuild their lives.
- Substance use disorder (SUD) evaluation and treatment, including a comprehensive medical review and beginning treatment medications, so that more patients are able to start their path to recovery in jail and continue beyond discharge.
- Essential prescribed medications for chronic disease and behavioral health conditions at the time of release, so that people don’t have a gap in medications that may threaten their health and stability.
- Infectious disease screening and treatment for chronic conditions, including Hepatitis C, so that patients have treatable health conditions identified and addressed before their health gets worse, requiring more complicated and expensive care.
Public Health – Seattle & King County’s Jail Health Services Division is leading this work at two adult detention facilities: the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle and the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. The Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention is leading initiative work at the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center in Seattle. Over 40 incarceration facilities in Washington state are participating.
Funding is administered through the Washington State Health Care Authority. They will provide up to $1,500,000 in capacity building funding and $1,000,000 in IT infrastructure funds to Public Health for each of the two adult detention facilities, plus reimbursement for eligible Medicaid expenses during the initial two-year Reentry Initiative period. King County’s juvenile detention facility is eligible to receive up to $2 million in funding as part of the pilot for youth.
What People Are Saying
Steve Larsen, Deputy Director, Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention
“Too often, people come to jail and prisons in desperate need of stabilization for opioid use disorders. This program allows DAJD and our Jail Health partners to develop comprehensive plans and coordinated care inside correctional settings prior to someone’s return to the community. If they can be stabilized while incarcerated and handed off to a community partner, we’re likely to see fewer violations of their conditions of release and subsequent incarcerations. It is good for the person as well as the criminal legal system.”
Dr. Sandra Valenciano, Director and Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County
“In the past, federal policy cut patients off from Medicaid support the moment they entered custody. This Reentry Initiative, in partnership with the state, allows us to leverage federal and state dollars to expand targeted services to a far greater proportion of our jail population. Ensuring more patients walk out of jail with active health care coverage, sufficient life-sustaining and stabilizing medications, and warm handoffs to community providers will improve their lives and benefit our community.”
Trinity Wilson, Medicaid Director, Washington State Health Care Authority
“A successful reentry program starts before an individual leaves a carceral facility; it builds a bridge that helps people returning to their communities. By participating in the Reentry Initiative, facilities ensure individuals leaving incarceration have access to health care services and the support needed to build healthier, more stable lives. By providing access to health care benefits prior to release, HCA is strengthening the bridge between incarceration and community-based care. The goal of the Reentry Initiative is to improve health outcomes, reduce recidivism, and support long-term success beyond release.”
Chief Amy Barden, City of Seattle, CARE Department
“I applaud the King County team for their relentless work and advocacy to advance meaningful change in King County Jails. The Reentry Demonstration Initiative represents a significant shift in philosophy, considering the jail a place where people are provided the clinical and medical supports needed to heal and redirect their lives. To achieve the safe, healthy communities we long for, we must effectively interrupt cycles of crime and crisis earlier. I believe this work represents the most important public safety innovation in the region, with the greatest potential to reduce harm in our neighborhoods and foster hope in individual lives.”
CaSandra Adams, Peer Advisor and Peer Specialist in Community Health
“I know firsthand what it means to be trapped in the cycle of addiction and incarceration, released back into the community with nothing but the desire for something different and no solid ground to stand on. As someone who has lived that reality and found recovery, I know that wanting a different life isn’t always enough; people need access to care, connection, and tangible opportunities to change. This initiative has the potential to create those lifelines by bridging the gap between jail and community-based care, connecting people to treatment, medications for opiate use disorder, mental health services, primary care, and housing resources. That continuity of care can be the difference between returning to the cycle and finding a path to recovery; ultimately, it can be the difference between life and death.”
Michelle Conley, MSW, Director of Integrated Care, REACH
“As an organization that believes reentry begins on day one of incarceration, we are grateful for King County’s leadership in advancing the Reentry Initiative. For too long, people living with serious mental illness and substance use disorder have faced preventable gaps in care during the transition from jail to the community, resulting in avoidable crises, overdoses, and deaths. From our perspective, this is fundamentally a disability rights issue and a community health imperative. It is in everyone’s best interest that people not lose access to lifesaving treatment, benefits, and support due to incarceration. By strengthening jail in-reach, care coordination, and continuity of services before and after release, this initiative moves us closer to a system that values recovery, dignity, and survival while creating safer, more resilient communities.”