Local task force looks at Palmer Correctional for detox

SUTTON — Members of the Mat-Su Opioid Task Force are optimistic about the potential of the closing Palmer Correctional Center for repurposement as a detoxification and treatment center.

About 30 people with a stake in the fight against the Matanuska-Susitna Valley’s opioid epidemic toured the Sutton facility on Tuesday, judging both the medium and minimum security sides of the prison for housing, work therapy and medical care.

Back in the spring, many of those same people toured Point Mackenzie Correctional Farm for the same purpose. The task force proposed that addicts arrested for a drug-related crime to appear in court and be referred to the farm, where they could go through a 7-day detox, then be prescribed a designated opioid replacement drug to make the recovering addict able to live and work on the farm.

Following that, Department of Corrections Commissioner Dean Williams told the task force that he would keep 10 beds open for detox if the group could develop a concrete plan agreeable to all parties involved.

When Palmer Correctional was marked for closing, the task force jumped on the opportunity to look at the place as an alternative to the Point Mackenzie farm, which is still actively operating and receiving prisoners to work the land.

“In short,” wrote task force chair Michael Carson in an email after the Tuesday tour, “the site, in my mind and with others concurring, is far superior to Pt. Mac.”

“This center could be a Statewide model that first save [sic] lives, and gives a citizen a life to look forward to being healthy and productive,” Carson wrote.

Housing

First, Palmer Correctional Probation Officer Emily Geiger showed the task force the segregation building, which was promoted for its size — 10 cells, compatible with Williams’ promise of 10 beds — and proximity to the medical wing.

However, not everyone was agreed on that particular building’s potential.

Looking around at the thick concrete walls and heavy metal doors, task force member Terria Walters — who was once incarcerated for drug-related crimes, and whose son was killed over drug-related issues — said she wasn’t “feeling it.”

“This area, for detox, no,” Walters said.

Alkermes drug rep Michael Eldridge, who has visited other detox facilities in his line of work, encouraged task force members to use their imagination when gauging the building’s potential.

“If you took all the metal away and softened this up, the facility is actually very similar to the Gateway Recovery Center in Fairbanks,” Eldridge said.

Eldridge pointed out that recovering addicts would “wanna sleep through detox anyway,” and Carson — who is also vice president for MY House — said he could see “attitude” helping to change the feel of the place, too.

Dr. Michael Alter with Mat-Su Regional Medical Center landed somewhere between Walters and Eldridge with his assessment of the building.

“It’s a little cold the way it is now,” he said, “but it is what it is. We just need a place.”

“It sure is a beautiful campus though, if you take away all the razor wire,” Alter added, looking at the surrounding mountains.

Outside segregation, 10 dorm-like buildings were presented as another option on the medium-security side. Seven featured 18 single and double-bed rooms around a central common area decorated with inmate-chosen inspirational quotes. These buildings include one laundry room each, showers, in-room toilets and office space.

Houses 8 through 10 — previously reserved for working inmates with good behavior — are single-hall buildings with five doorless bedrooms on either side and brightly colored paintings on each wall.

Echo Wyche, with Alaska Wisdom Recovery, said both kinds of houses were better than cells, but still not quite what she, or the majority of the task force, had in mind.

The minimum-security side, on the other hand — with its less restrictive layout and nearness to more recreational and vocational training opportunities — would work well, Wyche said.

“I think, like everyone else, the medium security side is less what we’re looking for, but this side would be,” she said.

Treatment

Geiger said Palmer Correctional, in some ways, already provides some of the kinds of services the task force would hope to offer, making the facility well-equipped for the potential transition to a detox and opioid abuse treatment center.

“We pride ourselves on being a re-entry facility, so we offer a lot of programs,” she said, including mental health and substance abuse treatment. The faith-based Transformational Living Community, or TLC, has also been popular at Palmer Correctional, Geiger said, which

Walters said she could attest to.

“At the executive level, we’re all working together to make sure those programs continue to be successful, and we can take them wherever we need to go,” Geiger said.

Commissioner Williams agreed that DOC would do its best to keep a good thing going.

“We can let this all go away … or we can say, let’s make this different and better,” he said.

Several task force members said they were pleased to see work therapy opportunities in the greenhouses, gardens, kitchens and welding/wood shop, and would hope to incorporate that into a treatment plan for the potential detox center.

Carson also pitched the idea of partnering with the University of Alaska Anchorage nursing program to bolster inmate access to medical care and provide work experience for students entering the medical field, but no formal discussion between the task force and the university has yet occurred.

The next Mat-Su Opioid Task Force meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 6 at MY House in Wasilla from 4 to 6 p.m. Contact Michael Carson at carsons@mtaonline.net for more information.

The next state task force meeting is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 2 from 9 a.m. to noon and can be accessed via teleconference using the number listed on the agenda at dhss.alaska.gov/AKOpioidTaskForce

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.