Those that have been recently incarcerated are especially vulnerable to overdose, as the risk for overdose death at two weeks post-release is 40 times higher than the general population. To address this vulnerable period, the Intensive Recovery Treatment Support (IRTS) intervention was launched in January 2018 as a collaboration between the Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC), and the New Jersey Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to provide comprehensive and ongoing re-entry services after release from prison for those with opioid and other substance use disorders (SUD). The overall goal of the program is to reduce both relapse and recidivism, thus improving individual and societal outcomes. 

The IRTS program adapted the Critical Time Intervention (CTI) model —a focused approach to case management that has been shown to be effective in building community connections for individuals making a transition to the community after leaving an institutional setting.

An innovative feature of the program is the support provided by peer health navigators with lived experience of addiction and exposure to the criminal justice system. Six months prior to release from prison, program participants are paired with a peer who works with them to develop a plan that includes opioid use disorder (OUD) and SUD treatment, employment, housing, and other re-entry components. The peer navigator continues to support the former inmate up to 12 months post-release, with the peer accompanying the client to appointments, providing recovery support, and linking the client to services that improve the social determinants of health.

In addition to peer support, the program provides counselors who help participants transition to daily life in the community, a nurse, a case manager, and access to OUD medications. There are also peers that meet with individuals who are newly incarcerated at orientation to discuss the DOC’s on-site OUD treatment program, which makes all three FDA-approved OUD medications available. IRTS services are especially intensive during the first 48 hours post-release. 

More details about the program can be found in the presentation here, the video here, and the news article here. The program appears in the peer-reviewed literature here and has been highlighted in the issue brief here.