TECHBeat, March 2018

• NCJ Number: 251611
• Date Published: March 2018
• Length: 10 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2014-IJ-CX-K404
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance); Program/Project Description

Annotation

This issue features an article on a Maryland county's efforts to address the opioid epidemic, an article on a Virginia county that uses unmanned aircraft (drones) to track missing persons with medical conditions; and an article on the use of virtual reality to prepare inmates for release.

Abstract

"Maryland County Offers Safe Place for Opioid Addicts" describes Anne Arundel County's Safe Stations program, which offers an option for opioid users seeking help with an addiction to walk into any fire or police station in the county to receive a preliminary medical evaluation from emergency medical staff, who then call in one of the county's Crisis Intervention Teams. In the program's first 10 months, 512 individuals responded to the offer, with a successful treatment rate of 58 percent. "Anne Arundel 'D.A.R.E.(S)' to Expand Prevention Education" describes Maryland's Anne Arundel County's adoption of several new community-based drug prevention programs to supplement the drug education curriculum in the county's schools. In February 2018, the county reinstated the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (D.A.R.E.) in three middle schools. Currently, nine officers have been trained to deliver this curriculum and plans are underway to send others for training to expand the program to more schools in fall 2018. "Loudon County Using Project Lifesaver sUAS" describes a Virginia county's use of a small unmanned aircraft system with a Project Lifesaver antenna, which improves the sheriff department's ability to track people with certain medical conditions who may have wandered away from their homes. "Using Virtual Reality to Prepare Inmates for Release" describes how Colorado uses virtual reality as part of a program to immerse inmates in a life-like environment to familiarize them with how to perform basic tasks.