Kansas City News Blog

Diana Turner runs the Bridges program at MCI

At first, the plan to coop up Kansas City's low-level offenders with Jackson County's convicted felons in the same downtown detention facility struck many community groups as a very, very bad idea. Organizations that provided mental health services, addiction treatment and outreach programming for the inmates at the Municipal Correctional Institution worried that the new jail would hinder their ability to help the city's most-troubled population.

The most significant example of that skepticism came from the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City. In 2008, the organization gave the city a $900,000 grant for a program called Bridges, which combines internal mental-health treatment with post-incarceration services. But when the city council decided to shutter MCI and move municipal inmates to Jackson County, the Foundation put the sizable grant on hold, concerned about the new set-up.

This week, the Foundation announced it will keep the money flowing. And the group's president, Steve Roling, tells me it's because the previously skeptical service providers are starting to trust their new partners.

Roling sums up his board's concerns about the new regional jail in two words: Nancy Leazer. The superintendent of MCI, Leazer is "a hero" in the social justice and mental health sectors for the culture she created at the city jail, Roling says. The Foundation had worked with her in the past and trusted her to make the new grant a success, as well.

"Our first reaction was, 'Well, this is going to change the game; somebody else will be in charge of the inmates and the treatment process'" Roling says. "Is the county going to do it the same; with the same culture, the same training, the same openness in working with providers and volunteers that Nancy had?"

When the regional jail plan was finalized this spring, Jackson County officials started working to get people like Roling and the Health Care Foundation on board right away. A task force of service providers -- like Truman Behavioral Health and ReStart -- started meeting with county officials, like jail director Ken Conlee, to make sure inmates would get the treatment they need.

"The providers have been very pleased at the level of cooperation the county has provided, even in how they designed facility," Roling says. County officials have agreed to dedicate an entire floor to administrative offices and treatment space for service providers and other outreach organizations. "And the county has also agreed to keep this committee they started to help with the transition meeting with county officials on regular basis to give them input," Roling adds.

So, on Wednesday, the Foundation told the city's Public Safety and Neighborhoods committee that the $900,000 funding will follow the MCI inmates to the new regional facility.

Which is a relief, not only for city officials, but for Diana Turner, too. Turner, the director for the Bridges grant, told the council committee that the program is already up and running. They've hired a therapist to work with inmates while they're incarcerated and a case manager to get them set up with services once they're released.

In just the first month, Turner said, the therapist has completed 10 clinical evaluations; engaged 28 different offenders. Seven participants have already been released with treatment plans that keep them connected to the Bridges staff, who help them get doctor's appointments and apply for food stamps. That way they can readjust to normal life not re-offend and return to jail. "We're really excited," Turner said. "Exactly what we hoped would happen is happening."

The city's aim is to renovate the new facility so it will be inmate-ready by August 1. Roling, for one, is optimistic about the transition.

"Nancy did hell of a job," Roling says. "But I think the county will do an equally good job."

So what will Leazer be doing come August? Stay tuned.