Through this project the city of duluth will expand, refine, and sustain its successful, evidence-informed approach toward integrating peer recovery specialists into the criminal justice system to…

Through this project the city of duluth will expand, refine, and sustain its successful, evidence-informed approach toward integrating peer recovery specialists into the criminal justice system to provide individuals with substance use disorders with peer and harm reduction-based services. The city of duluths substance use response (surt) operates across the arrowhead region of north east minnesota, including ST. Louis, carlton, and lake counties in minnesota and the city of superior, wisconsin. The region has a population of 273,944 and is approximately 12,000 square miles. The surt is a peer recovery led deflection program housed within the duluth police department. Existing programming includes three interrelated components: the maintenance of an opioid-overdose database providing near real-time data on overdose trends across the region; client-focused services, which include all of the six pathways to deflection as well as the ability to provide participants with rapid STI screenings and on-site clinical substance use assessments; and naloxone training and distribution to law enforcement, community partners, and the general public.through this project surt will expand into additional intercepts of the criminal-legal system by embedding a social worker into the local jail to provide reentry services, partnering with a local reentry organization to provide ongoing wraparound reentry case management, and collaborating with a prosecutor-led diversion program to provide peer and harm reduction services to program participants. Additional peer recovery support services will be offered with the implementation of OPT-out rapid STI testing for incarcerated people at the regional correctional facility and increasing naloxone saturation efforts among criminal justice partners. The expected outcomes are improvements in regional reentry services, increases in various populations' access to harm reduction services, and improvements in outreach efforts related to the overdose epidemic. The intended beneficiaries of all program components are individuals with high needs and high barriers to accessing substance use, behavioral health, and harm reduction services through more traditional venues, which oftentimes are individuals with intersectional, historically marginalized identities.