Rural Jails Turn to Health Workers to Help the Newly Released Succeed

By  Lillian Mongeau Hughes Originally appeared in KFF Health News MANTI, Utah — Garrett Clark estimates he has spent about six years in the Sanpete County Jail, a plain concrete building perched on a dusty hill just outside this small, rural town where he grew up. He blames his addiction. He started using in middle school, and by the time he was an adult, he was addicted to meth and heroin. At various points, he’s done time alongside his mom, his dad, his sister, and his younger brother. “That’s all I’ve known my whole life,” said Clark, 31, in December. Clark was at the jail to pick up his sister, who had just been released. The siblings think this time will be different. They are both sober. Shantel Clark, 33, finished earning her high school diploma during her four-month stay at the jail. They have a place to live where no one is using drugs. And they have Cheryl Swapp, the county sheriff’s new community health worker, on their side. “She saved my life probably, for sure,” Garrett Clark said. Swapp meets with every person booked into the county jail soon after they arrive and helps them create a plan...