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It is increasingly well understood that the criminal justice system is one of the most significant and valuable intervention points for getting people into recovery. When people are given access to the services they need to enter and maintain recovery, the success stories are common.

But providing those resources in jails can be tough, especially in small, rural counties. For one, there are a number of policies and laws that jails have to consider when seeking funding for resources.

And worse, when addiction goes unaddressed—whether due to cost, or lack of local services or more, recidivism tends to be higher, which makes the problem even more expensive, and even tougher for counties to solve.

Our guest this month is Libby Jones, associate vice president of the Overdose Prevention Initiative. Her organization is currently working with the U.S. Congress on three bipartisan federal bills that seek to improve this situation: the Re-Entry Act, the Due Process Continuity of Care Act and the Peer Support Act. In this conversation, we talk about what these bills seek to accomplish, how they could potentially benefit county governments, the ongoing history of bipartisanship at the federal level when fighting the overdose crisis, how Tennessee legislators have been leaders in this fight, and finally, how the best policies come from the local level.

This episode is intended to be educational and is not to be taken as an endorsement or rejection of any legislation. Any opinions or views or specific language presented in this episode does not reflect the opinion of the University of Tennessee.

Learn more:

• Overdose Prevention Initiative
• The Re-Entry Act
  Due Process Continuity of Care Act
• Peer Support Act
• Related reading: Critical Issues in Policing 2025: Opioid Deaths Fall as Law Enforcement and Public Health Find Common Ground 

Original music by Blind House. Hosted and produced with additional scoring by Jeremy Kourvelas.