Our Success Stories

Big win for AMH&DA! Assessing the horrific pattern of deaths at the jail, we said, bring in the experts please! The Alliance's steering committee is delighted to announce that the Arlington County Board has adopted our budget request for an Addiction Medicine consultancy to address policies and practices in our county. AMH&DA has noted that publicly available information about the seven deaths since 2015 suggests a very significant connection between alcohol withdrawal or opioid withdrawal or intoxication while incarcerated at the jail. We thank Arlington County Board members for listening and Sheriff Arthur for supporting this budget item. Special thanks also to Maureen Boyle, PhD, Chief Quality and Science Officer at the American Society for Addiction Medicine. It turns out that substance use related custodial deaths are a horrific problem in local jails nationwide. No more blaming mental illness. Let's fix what is actually broken. Join us!