Mental health and addiction service treatment services at the Kenton County Detention Center are moving in-house.
The Kenton County Detention Center will implement the Persistence, Accountability, Transformation and Hope program, also known as PATH. According to Jailer Marc Fields, funding for PATH primary comes from the Kentucky Overdose Response Effort.
Established in 2017, KORE operates under the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and is funded through federal grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Its core purpose is to combat the ongoing opioid crisis by assisting with harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services for individuals.
Fields and Jason Merrick, director of addiction services at the detention center, presented the new program to the Kenton County Fiscal Court during a meeting on Feb. 11.
“What we wanted to do was reset the program to better benefit the residents of Kenton County and Northern Kentucky,” Fields said.
Merrick told the fiscal court that the program was entirely unique to Kenton County.
“Anybody in any dorm in the jail will be able to get referred into the program,” he said. “They’ll be able to get individual counseling, case management, re-entry services and group counseling, all within the detention center.”
Merrick explained that the PATH program would effectively function as an in-house outpatient program, enabling treatment access for everyone in the jail. This differs from the Kentucky Department of Corrections-backed Substance Abuse Program model the detention center currently uses.
“We’ve got to change with the times,” Merrick said. “The drug scene is not the same as it was in 2017 when we started this program, so we’re modifying. We’re expanding.”
In July 2024, Kenton County entered into an agreement with Addiction Recovery Services, a substance abuse treatment provider headquartered in Louisa, Kentucky. ARC agreed to provide the Kenton County Detention Center with substance abuse treatment and mental health programs, including assessment, treatment planning, and individual and group therapy.
The agreement was slated to last from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2026. However, either party could terminate it sooner.
In September 2024, ARC announced it would reduce staff and restructure its services, citing cuts in Medicaid reimbursements. LINK’s media partner, the Kentucky Lantern, reported that ARC reduced its staff by nearly 25% in November 2024. Furthermore, the FBI launched a healthcare fraud investigation into ARC. While no criminal charges have been filed, the investigation is still ongoing, according to the FBI website.
Kenton County confirmed it terminated its agreement with ARC in December 2024, effectively absorbing the responsibilities of ARC. Before signing the contract with ARC, Kenton County operated its in-house behavioral health and substance abuse programs.
Fields said the new program aims to create a system that seamlessly transitions participants from law enforcement, countywide legal offices and the detention center.
“I think what one of the key elements here is that what we’ve got assist we’re creating a system where the prosecutors, the jail, local law enforcement, and the even the public defenders and probation/parole are all working together to make sure that this person has a seamless transition,” he said.
Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann said the program’s “endgame” is keeping participants out of the detention center by providing them with proper care and assistance.
“I would tell you that the investment of time and resources is what makes sense, even from the county, the ideas that get people, the assistance and whatever they need, to get back out and be productive and not come back,” Knochelmann said.
