Rapid Engagement Correctional Outreach Navigators

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

Rapid Engagement Correctional Outreach Navigators or RECON is a team of peer recovery specialists that work inside the Chesterfield County Jail. The peer navigators are George Mason University employees hired through the Empowered Community Opioid Project (ECOP) that work in the intake unit of the jail. The project launched in December of 2022. The program follows a Bridge model utilizes principles from care coordination, case management, and population health to maximize health outcomes and resource utilization for populations and the individuals within them, in this case, those high-risk individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). The Bridge process focuses on coordinating care through cross-sector system collaboration followed by individualization of that care. The special part about the RECON team is that two out of the three peer staff, came through the Jail’s own drug treatment program, HARP. Utilizing the jails own program alumni to make a further impact for the OUD community spreads hope to those that are struggling with OUD and incarceration that recovery is possible.