West Virginia
Serves Boone, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Fayette, Greenbrier, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Lincoln, Logan, Marshall, McDowell, Mingo, Nicholas, Ohio, Pocahontas, Preston, Raleigh, Roane, Tyler, Wayne and Wetzel Counties
The Public Defender Corporation Recovery Coach Project connects indigent criminal defendants with substance use disorders to certified peer recovery coaches. Peer recovery coaches arrange for substance use treatment opportunities immediately after a client is released from incarceration. Coaches follow up with clients 6-, 12- and 18-months after referral. The peer recovery coaches are employed by public defender corporations which are statutory, non-profit corporations funded by Public Defender Services, a state agency, to handle indigent cases in designated judicial circuits. By hiring peer recovery coaches directly, this model allows coaches to work directly with public defenders, referring clients early in the criminal justice process, often before bond conditions have been decided. This enables clients to enter substance treatment and frees public defenders to focus on their legal cases.