Koutoujian Tackles Social Ills in Prisons; Sheriff Addresses Opioid Addiction Among Inmates

Middlesex County will be in compliance by sometime in 2016 with the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which had passed 10 years ago. Careful attention is paid to issues of assault and harm, as well as suicide. The correctional staff is highly trained and misbehavior on its part prevented. Koutoujian said, “You must treat the prison population with respect, keep them occupied and exercised. In this way they can finish their stay without much problem. If there is abuse going on, that creates an unsafe atmosphere for the rest of the staff too.”

Koutoujian has been concerned also with female inmates. He has been trying to create a regional women’s facility in Framingham in order to avoid the problems created by housing women sentenced for more serious crimes by the state together with women in prison for lighter sentences in Middlesex Country. This entails a large financial expenditure for a comparatively small part of the prison population, so it will probably take a long time to achieve this goal. Meanwhile, his office is the first one in the state to provide programming specifically targeted to female county inmates housed in the present state facility.

Koutoujian has been actively promoting his general approach to incarceration wherever suitable. He said, “We try to influence more decision makers on the federal and state levels in this direction and give support for this method. I think it is just part of my job.”

In October, he became a founding member of Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration. He was the only member of this national group who was an office holder in Massachusetts. There were over 130 prominent district attorneys, attorney generals, sheriffs, chiefs of police and other members from around the country pushing for alternatives to unnecessary arrests and prison sentences. They pointed out that with 5 percent of the world’s population the US contains 25 percent of the world’s population of prisoners, a disproportionately large figure.

The group’s inaugural press conference received front page coverage in the New York Times and other national media. Timothy Williams, a Times correspondent, said that the group’s stance represented “an abrupt public shift in philosophy for dozens of law enforcement officials who have sustained careers based upon tough-on-crime strategies.”

Koutoujian was one of the members of the group to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House after the press conference.

Koutoujian feels that their approach is a non-partisan one. For example, he participated in a bipartisan summit on prison reform and reentry initiatives in Jacksonville, Fla. in November with Allison DeFoor, who is a reverend and had been a candidate for lieutenant-governor of Florida in the past and a former sheriff. Koutoujian said, “We spoke the same language, though he was a hardcore Republican and I a Democrat. We were in lockstep on many issues….No longer are correction issues partisan ones. Among our sheriffs [in Massachusetts], five or six are Republican, but we all speak the same language.”

This non-partisanship is one reason why Koutoujian has a cordial working relationship with Republican Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts. Just as importantly, the two have known each other for some twenty years, and from the very beginning, Koutoujian was left with a positive feeling. When in the state legislature, Koutoujian had to testify before the Board of Higher Education. Koutoujian said, “I was immediately impressed by him. I was a brand new state representative, and he was a very highly regarded Secretary of Administration and Finance, one of the most powerful positions in the state, and yet he treated me with incredible respect and dignity, and I will never forget that.” Since that point, their paths crossed periodically. For example, while Koutoujian was chairman of the Joint Committee on Health Care of the Massachusetts legislature, Baker had to testify before this committee as president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare over a number of years.

Koutoujian has participated as a speaker in a number of events connected with the governor. For example, in July, 2015, Koutoujian addressed members of the Governor’s Council on prison issues, addiction and treatments. On December 8, both Koutoujian and the governor spoke as panelists at Roxbury Community College at an event on substance abuse and mental health care organized by Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tomkins. A week later, the governor hosted the premiere of a movie on opiate addiction, “Heroin: Cape Cod, USA,” and he asked Koutoujian, among others, to address to the crowd.

More significantly, in November, Koutoujian was one of eight sheriffs out of 14 in the state to support Baker’s bill on opiates, which would give hospitals the power to force treatment for up to 72 hours on addicts who are a danger to themselves or others, and to limit first-time opiate prescriptions to no more than a 72-hour supply. Some civil liberties advocates and doctors and dentists have criticized these restrictions.

Koutoujian said in response that “this is not that drastic a measure. People now can be committed for mental health reasons. It is an extension of this. They can walk out any time they want to after the 72 hours. It stabilizes the person a bit and allows a family to put in place the resources to treat the addiction. It provides a day or two of breathing room for treatment programs.”

As far as the prescription limitations are concerned, Koutoujian said he believes it is necessary to avoid overprescribing so that extra pills do not sit in medicine cabinets. Reassessment can always take pace after a short period of time. The danger is that prescription pill abuse will lead the way to opiate problems.

Koutoujian, incidentally, said despite the large Armenian population in the county, unlike Los Angeles, there are not very many Armenian prisoners. There is no statistical breakdown based on ethnicity, so it is not possible to get a complete figure, he said. Koutoujian said that on the day before our first interview in mid-December 2015, there were four inmates who were born in the Republic of Armenia. He said, “I pass through and somebody says parev, or inch bes es.” His point, he said, was that “the Armenian-American community is not immune from what is going on in society at large. I would venture to guess that ethnic Armenians – Armenian-Americans — probably have lower rates of criminal behavior and substance abuse issues, but we are not immune from it. I know families that have reached out to me about loved ones with mental health issues and addiction. They have a great deal of shame and reach out with desperation.”

When Koutoujian was asked about the effects of President Obama’s recent executive order on gun control, he answered, “I find that the executive action is not going to impact gun safety significantly, but it still is something positive.” He said that the more important action should be taken by Congress. Loopholes in background checks must be eliminated and people prevented from buying a large number of guns at any one time. He stressed that “These are not efforts to take anyone’s guns away, but to be sure of who is getting the guns.”