Treatment vs Prison

http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20160305/drugs-probation-deadly-mix-for-ri-son

Drugs, probation a deadly mix for R.I. son
Eric Cabral was ordered home because his trip to a Florida drug-treatment program had violated the terms of his probation. Twelve days later, he was dead.


John Cabral recalls the fear in his son's voice the day he called from a Florida drug treatment center to say his probation officer was ordering him back to Rhode Island.

His parents had hustled Eric, skinny and drug-sick, onto a plane to The Watershed addiction-treatment program in Boynton Beach. He was in such rough shape that his mother, Susan Terhune, recalls that she was afraid he might pass out before he boarded his flight.

At T.F. Green Airport, as she pressed a ticket into her son's hand, it never crossed her mind that their rescue mission was a punishable offense.

A month later — after detox, psychiatrists visits and group meetings — Eric was supposed to move into one of The Watershed's "sober living" houses — 1,400 miles from the familiar temptations back home.

But probationers are supposed to get permission to leave the state. The first time Eric went to The Watershed for treatment he did so. This time, his parents were so frantic to get Eric help that it never crossed their minds the state could order him back.

When Eric called his probation officer in Providence, he was told he'd violated the law. If he didn't come back to Rhode Island, he could face up to five years in prison.

He came back.

Twelve days later, Eric Cabral was dead. He was 37.

Treatment vs. prison

Rhode Island's probation rolls are filled with people like Eric Cabral: young men addicted to heroin or prescription opioids who run into trouble with the law.

Nationally, about one-fourth of the adults on probation were convicted of drug offenses, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Rhode Island has about 24,000 adults on probation — the third-highest probation rate in the country. Twenty-four percent of them — more than 5,700 adults — were convicted of drug offenses, according to the state Department of Corrections.

The nation's probation system was created to keep offenders out of prison. If the system functions well, it should "connect people with treatment services" and reduce the likelihood of repeat offenses, said Carl Reynolds, senior legal and policy adviser at the nonpartisan Council of State Governments Justice Center in New York City.

But in Eric's case, the system did just the opposite.

His parents tried to do the right thing by their son. State officials say probation officers did the right thing by enforcing the law.

John Cabral and Susan Terhune want to share their son's story in hopes that it can help change how the criminal justice system treats people addicted to opioids and prevent more young people from dying.

The following narrative is drawn from recollections of Eric's family and a neighbor, police reports, court records, health insurance records and state probation records obtained by his parents from the state five months after requesting them under the Rhode Island Access to Public Records Act.