Salvation Army to close its Sacramento rehab center. It could mean more men will end up in jail
The Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center in Sacramento will close this fall after more than 50 years, forcing Sacramento-area men who want to complete the six-month residential program to travel to Stockton, Chico, Fresno, Bakersfield or Oakland.
The closure also means Sacramento Superior Court judges can no longer send nonviolent offenders there as an alternative to jail.
It’s the second Sacramento facility that stopped accepting court referrals from Sacramento Superior Court judges this summer, meaning there will be more people in jail who could be in treatment, said Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown.
As of July 1, the Volunteers of America North 5th Street Shelter no longer accepts court referrals, Brown said. It still runs as a shelter, but men and women must be referred by the police, a VOA spokeswoman said.
“At a time when our justice system is giving greater priority to treatment rather than incarceration for persons with drug addition, the loss of these treatment beds will undermine our efforts,” Brown said. “We already didn’t have an abundance of treatment resources, so this is going in the wrong direction. We’re losing treatment resources at the very time we need to be growing them.”
There are other programs judges can still send people to, but many have waiting lists, Brown said.
“It won’t be as if there are no other programs, however the waiting list for available treatment beds will grow,” Brown said. “They could be languishing in jail awaiting a bed space.”
The Salvation Army Family Thrift Store at 16th and D streets in Sacramento’s New Era Park neighborhood, which funds the nearby center, will also close Oct. 1, the nonprofit announced. Thrift stores in Woodland, Auburn, and Grass Valley will also close.
The rehabilitation center, which holds 80 men and is typically full, will close Oct. 1, said Maj. Ivan Wild, commander for the Salvation Army’s Del Oro division in the Sacramento area. Participants live there for six months while receiving recovery services, job training, working in warehouses, and attending religious services, Wild said. They also go to classes on personal banking and parenting.
Last year, 89 men graduated from the rehabilitation program in Sacramento, according to Samantha Jarosz, a Salvation Army spokeswoman.
As of today, 49 men in the Sacramento program are “dealing with legal issues,” across a total of 18 counties, Jarosz said.
The program is not accepting any new men, and men who do not complete the program by Oct. 1 will be transferred to another location, Wild said.
The nonprofit will use the building to expand other Salvation Army residential programs in Sacramento, Wild said. The nonprofit runs the 120-bed Center of Hope on B Street, for the homeless, as well as a 34-unit E. Claire Raley Transitional Living Center.
Joyce Mikal-Flynn, an expert in trauma who taught classes at the rehabilitation center, said its closure is a huge loss for Sacramento.
“I saw firsthand how minds could shift and spirits could be lifted as a result of this,” said Mikal-Flynn, a professor of nursing at Sacramento State. “I was completely impressed by the setup the care that was given. They really brought some dignity back to these men.”
The nonprofit plans to sell the rehabilitation center and thrift store buildings, then use the money to improve the Stockton rehabilitation center and to support other rehabilitation programs, the release said.
The Salvation Army decided to close the Sacramento center instead of the other locations for several reasons, Jarosz said.
“It’s based on a number of factors, including the increasing cost of doing business in Sacramento, rising gas prices, the minimum wage increase, an increase in pick-up costs, and age and maintenance costs of the facilities,” Jarosz said in a statement.
The nonprofit is also closing rehabilitation centers in Seattle and Tucson, Arizona, it announced last week.
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Salvation Army to close its Sacramento rehab center. It could mean more men will end up in jail."
