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Addressing addiction is no small task,

but I knew we had to try.

I recently retired from law enforcement, and am Reshaping My Views
currently the president and CEO of a nonprofit that I haven’t changed much from my first days in law
provides behavioral health and substance-abuse recov- enforcement. I am still a product of my conservative,
ery. Among other services, we focus on rehabilitating working-class upbringing, and I will always defend
people who are incarcerated in the county jail and cops and other public servants. However, my perspec-
reducing law enforcement’s calls to situations involv- tives on drug abuse, incarceration, and mental health
ing mental breaks and potential use of the Baker Act, a have evolved not in spite of my career but because of it.
Florida law that allows law enforcement to temporar- When I first took office as Sarasota County’s elected
ily detain people who are impaired because of mental sheriff in 2009, two situations immediately questioned
illness. We also help homeless people, pregnant women my views:
with addiction, and people from every walk of life. This • chronic overcrowding in a jail that was seriously
begs the question: What happened? How did I change antiquated, and
from an aggressive street cop eager to arrest people to a
bleeding-heart nonprofit head who wants to offer treat- • a large population incarcerated for prescription drug
ment and keep people out of jail? abuse.
The jail overcrowding problem needed to be
resolved immediately. We risked not only losing our
accreditation, but also defending multiple lawsuits. We
couldn’t segment and separate the inmates according
to standards. Roofs were leaking, pipes were breaking,
and the video visitation system didn’t work. It was the
height of a recession and the county had little to noth-
ing budgeted for repairs, let alone a new facility. When
a price tag was finally assigned to a new building, it
was in excess of $100 million and would require a pub-
lic bond referendum—exactly what an elected official
in a conservative, low-tax community doesn’t want to
champion.
At the same time, the jail was filled with people
who were addicted—many to prescription opioids. As
a highway patrol trooper during the cocaine-cowboy
days, I relished arresting people in possession of narcot-
ics, many of whom were dealers transporting drugs on
the highways. But as sheriff, I found myself fielding
calls nearly every day from people whom I knew. They
were desperate to find help for their addicted teenagers
and adult children, siblings, spouses, and friends. Few,
if any, were dealing. However, many were commit-
ting petty crimes due to their addiction, entering our
jail many times over. It was the classic revolving-door
scenario.
It quickly became apparent that one way to mitigate
our jail overcrowding was to divert our addicts into
treatment instead of a cell. Addressing addiction is no
small task, but I knew we had to try. We began on the
supply side with the crafting of a creative ordinance

16 | MAY | JUNE 2021 AMERICANJails