The week of May 18, a group of men and women inside the Mesa County Detention Facility did something that many people don’t associate with jail: they graduated. Their accomplishment marked the completion of the facility’s Substance Use Disorder (SUD) program — a meaningful milestone in each participant’s recovery and a reflection of what is possible with treatment in an environment of structure and respect.
“The JBBS program is an invaluable tool for incarcerated individuals who suffer from addictions to learn the root causes, individual triggers, and methods to reduce the potential for relapse,” said Mesa County Sheriff’s Office Division Chief Henry Stoffel. “The JBBS staff is very passionate about the information they provide and is an immense asset to the facility and individuals they work with."
NaphCare is proud to partner with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office to deliver this program as part of the jail’s behavioral health services.
Inside Jail Based Behavioral Health Services
That graduation is one visible moment within a broader effort known as Jail Based Behavioral Health Services (JBBS). The program is designed to jumpstart the recovery journey and help patients prepare for a healthy, prosocial transition into the community after release by addressing substance use and the behaviors, relationships, and patterns that surround it. JBBS offers a series of curricula that meet people where they are, each running roughly eight to twelve weeks, with themes like:
Throughout these curricula, participants practice new habits relevant to the classroom and the facility, and someday, to life outside the facility. They learn to distinguish between an action and a reaction. They build a toolkit of grounding techniques, including art, meditation, and tapping. And they practice gratitude and boundary-setting as they focus on the future while developing a healthy perspective on the past.
Creative Expression as a Healing Tool
Among these tools, one has taken on a life of its own — art. Throughout the program, participants are encouraged to express themselves creatively, turning thoughts and emotions into something constructive and lasting. Drawing, in particular, has become a way for many to process trauma, build focus and patience, and reconnect with parts of themselves that incarceration can obscure.
To celebrate that creativity, the program held an art contest for this graduating class. Entries were submitted and recognized at the graduation ceremony.
The art program has become a welcomed and highly anticipated tradition in recent years, and a new Mesa County Jail Art Competition was announced at the graduation, so another group of participants will have the opportunity to pick up a pencil, brush, or pen and tell their own story.
From the Local News to Illustrating a Children’s Book
Few examples capture the spirit of this program better than Victor Jackson, a recent JBBS graduate and art program participant. Victor, a self-taught artist who had never taken a single drawing class, was featured in local news coverage when his work went on public display in the detention lobby alongside that of fellow participants. At the time, he described art as a way to stay connected to his wife of 15 years and their young children, and to remind himself and others that people are “more than their mistakes.”
That message is now reaching even further. A local children’s book author recently asked Victor to serve as the illustrator for her upcoming book. The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office jail command staff approved the arrangement, and the author and Victor are connecting soon to begin the work. It’s a remarkable opportunity and a powerful example of what can happen when patients have the chance to demonstrate their talent and potential.
A Commitment Renewed
There’s encouraging news for the future of this work, too. Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration has confirmed it will continue funding the jail’s behavioral health programs through June 2027, supported by a $674,000 state grant. That investment sustains substance use and opioid use disorder treatment as well as mental health services for people in custody. This program serves roughly 150 to 225 clients per week, often more than half of the facility’s population. Continued funding means continued access to care, and continued opportunities for participants to build a foundation for a healthier life after release.
The Real Measure of Success
We measure the JBBS’s success in graduations, but we don’t stop there. The truest measure of the program is what happens afterward. Many participants continue their sobriety and treatment once they are released, and as their recovery stabilizes, they are able to pursue therapy and other needed care. That progress isn’t abstract. At the program’s annual banquet, the team celebrated ten individuals who had found lasting stability and success, and staff regularly cross paths with former participants who are now working and contributing throughout the community, building the kind of steady, everyday life the program is designed to make possible.
“The JBBS program is an invaluable tool for incarcerated individuals who suffer from addictions to learn the root causes, individual triggers, and methods to reduce the potential for relapse,” said Mesa County Sheriff’s Office Division Chief Henry Stoffel. “The JBBS staff is very passionate about the information they provide and is an immense asset to the facility and individuals they work with."
At NaphCare, our mission is to improve and save lives in corrections. The Mesa County JBBS program demonstrates this mission in action at a community level, helping patients return to their communities healthier than when they arrived. But the graduation and art contest tell the story at an individual level, demonstrating that no one is defined by their hardest chapter.
As the artist and future children’s book illustrator Victor Jackson reflected during coverage of the program last December, “All saints have a past, and all sinners have a future.”
For these graduates in the Mesa County Detention Facility’s JBBS program, that future may be brighter than they’d dared to dream.
