The previous couple of occasions Maranda Rider spoke to her youthful sister, Jenny Roelfs was sober.
Rider mentioned her sister had been engaged on her sobriety to be a greater mother to her then-1-year-old son when she was arrested in mid-January 2020.
“It was actually exhausting for (her) to start with to get clear and sober, however as soon as Jenny had made the choice that she wasn’t going to do medicine anymore and he or she was going to be a mother, she was like full drive, you recognize, doing her courses, doing her (testing), staying off medicine, staying away from the unhealthy folks,” Rider mentioned. “So she actually received motivated and able to do it.
“After which I don’t know what setback occurred. One thing took over.”
The final time Rider noticed her sister was a number of days earlier than that January arrest. Rider picked up Roelfs and her belongings from an condominium she shared along with her boyfriend, with whom she used medicine. Roelfs was making an attempt to remain sober and get full custody of her little one again, Rider mentioned.
“She had mentioned she didn’t wish to be across the stuff anymore and that she didn’t know what he was doing or what he wasn’t doing and that she simply wanted to remain centered on getting the newborn again,” Rider mentioned.
A couple of days later, Roelfs was booked into the Larimer County Jail. A few month after that — hours earlier than she was scheduled to be launched right into a 90-day intensive rehab program — she was discovered lifeless in her cell after a heroin overdose.
“I do know she didn’t have wherever to go and he or she was actually pressured about that,” Rider mentioned. “I collect that’s how she ended up again with the identical folks she was making an attempt so exhausting to keep away from.”
A yr and a half after Roelfs’ dying, an inmate who shared the pod within the jail along with her was charged with criminally negligent murder for supplying the medicine that Roelfs used when she overdosed. Whereas Rider mentioned she was indignant and needed punishment and justice within the months that adopted her sister’s dying, now she simply prays that the opposite inmate can flip her life round so two lives aren’t misplaced to heroin.
“What I would really like is consciousness, and I would really like folks to be paying extra consideration to the already troubled souls going into the jail,” Rider mentioned.
Roelfs is the primary particular person to die of a drug overdose whereas held on the Larimer County Jail in a minimum of 15 years. Whereas employees say they use a multilayered method to maintain medicine and different probably harmful contraband exterior the jail, some objects get by. Over the previous 5 years, greater than 300 folks have been charged with possessing unlawful substances or bringing different contraband objects to the jail.
‘I all the time thought she was protected in there’
An nameless observe was discovered within the jail pod after Roelfs’ dying that mentioned, “I hate to be a ‘snitch’” and that Jenny and two others within the pod had been “doing heroin for the previous few days,” in accordance with arrest paperwork.
Rider mentioned she was “blown away” when she learn concerning the observe within the police report detailing her sister’s dying.
“How is heroin going round for 3 days in a single pod between the identical three folks and nobody is catching it?” Rider mentioned. “That’s negligence to me. Did somebody drive my sister to get excessive on heroin? No. Ought to they bear in mind that it’s within the jail? Completely.”
She mentioned deputies ought to have observed, or different inmates ought to have mentioned one thing sooner — earlier than the medicine took Roelfs’ life.
“I all the time thought she was protected in there,” Rider mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘Oh, my sister’s not getting excessive in the present day.’ That was, like, the one factor that held me over.”
Court docket paperwork say one other lady within the pod introduced half an oz of heroin into the jail and was sharing it with a number of different girls to get excessive. When one other lady within the pod threatened to inform deputies concerning the medicine, the lady gave it to Roelfs to carry, in accordance with the paperwork. Roelfs was discovered unresponsive in her bunk the next morning.
A girl within the pod advised investigators it is “simple to get medicine within the jail” on account of a “lack of safety” as a result of present search strategies aren’t efficient, in accordance with arrest paperwork.
“I’d disagree,” Larimer County Jail Capt. Bobby Moll mentioned in response to that declare. “We’re doing three pat searches, a strip search and a physique scanner. There’s just about nothing else we may do as a way to mitigate that.”
Inmates are patted down thrice earlier than they’re taken to a pod within the jail: earlier than they’re positioned in a patrol car, after they arrive on the jail and earlier than they go into housing.
They’re additionally requested if they’ve any weapons or medicine with them after they arrive on the jail. In the event that they do and so they inform the arresting officer, Moll mentioned that is handled as a type of “amnesty interval” after they would possibly nonetheless be charged with possession if acceptable however wouldn’t be charged with introducing contraband.
Individuals who can be staying on the jail should undergo the jail’s physique scanner, which is analogous to an X-ray machine, Moll mentioned. The Larimer County Jail was one of many first county jails in the country to implement a body scanner in 2015, jail Lt. Josh Quick mentioned, and lots of have adopted the know-how since then.
When the physique scanner was bought in 2015, it changed strip searches, in accordance with Coloradoan archives.
“Actually, there’s 5 measures put in place earlier than they even go to housing to search for contraband,” Moll mentioned.
There are additionally indicators in English and Spanish within the reserving space warning folks not to herald contraband and telling them what they’d be charged with if caught, Quick mentioned.
Since 2017, there have been 333 introduction of contraband cases at the Larimer County Jail, according to the 8th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Items considered contraband include drugs, weapons or even a large string or thread ripped from clothing or a mattress.
Staff conducts random searches of cells, pods and restrooms, Moll said, and the jail has two drug detection dogs which can be continually looking out the reserving space, kitchen and different areas within the jail. The canine do not sniff folks, solely areas.
“We combine it up on a regular basis and we attempt to make it unpredictable,” Moll mentioned.
Deputies straight supervise folks within the jail by being with them within the pods as an alternative of watching cameras.
“Our employees is in with the inmates, concerned with them, speaking to them, checking on them, ensuring they’re OK,” Quick mentioned.
No modifications to those procedures have been made since Roelfs’ dying, Moll mentioned. Contraband instances have decreased in Larimer County since 2018, in accordance with knowledge from the district lawyer’s workplace. One particular person has died in custody on the jail since Roelfs’ dying, however that was on account of a medical situation.
“That is what we had been doing then, and that is what we’ll proceed to do,” he mentioned. “Having all these measures in place, there’s not much more we may do.”
Moll mentioned the jail doesn’t do invasive physique cavity searches when inmates enter the jail.
“They must go to a hospital to do this and it’s simply method too intrusive,” Moll mentioned. “Our purpose is to be as humane as we are able to.”
Felony conviction in exchange for rehab
Roelfs was scheduled to be released and sent to the 90-day Intensive Residential Treatment program the day she overdosed, Rider said. She wonders if her sister was getting high one last time before treatment or if she relapsed because she was upset after learning she was losing visitation with her 1-year-old son because of her arrest.
“I don’t know what she was thinking, but she knew she was getting out the next day and she had intentions of going to rehab is what I understand,” Rider said. “… Those are the questions I’ll never know the answers to, is what really happened, what was going on in her brain.”
Moll said while they do everything they can inside the jail to keep inmates and others safe from themselves and each other, the jail is “an extension of the community” and the issues they face are a reflection of the greater Larimer County community.
“We’re an extension of the decisions (people) make on the outside,” Moll said.
When people are booked into the Larimer County Jail, they are asked if they use drugs or other substances and if they’d like to participate in voluntary medically assisted treatment while they are in custody. If someone is convicted of a drug-related offense, there are a few residential treatment programs they can be sent to as part of their criminal sentence.
Christine McCue, a peer program supervisor at SummitStone Health Partners, went through the county’s Intensive Residential Treatment program three times before it finally stuck. She had been using meth for almost 15 years.
“I went through so many treatments and nothing was working,” McCue said. “And finally, this last time, I was just ready, ready to do it.”
McCue turned herself in for felony drug possession on June 29, 2016, and has been sober since. She said she accepted that being arrested on a low-level felony drug charge “was the best thing that could happen to pull me out of that life.”
“I said, ‘I know what you’re going to do. You’re going to arrest me. I have this low-class drug felony, I’m not going to go to prison under it. What you’re going to do is you’re going to offer me (residential treatment) and you’re going to take me to community corrections and I’m going to be able to stay sober,’ ” McCue said of turning herself in to the police.
A few days later, she was in one of the residential treatment programs at Community Corrections.
These programs are available for people sentenced to Community Corrections or the Department of Corrections, or who are on parole or probation in Larimer County.
McCue said she turned herself in because she couldn’t see herself accessing the structured, long-term residential treatment she needed to be successful outside of the criminal justice system.
“The people who are not in trouble with the law who do want to get help, the resources are just so scarce,” she said.
McCue and her wife — who went through treatment with her — have recently moved into their newly built home in Northern Colorado with their 2-year-old daughter. In addition to the clients she supports at SummitStone, she returns to share her story with other women going through the Intensive Residential Treatment program in Community Corrections.
“None of this would’ve been possible if (my wife and I) wouldn’t have gotten services,” McCue said.
Treatment options ‘can be hard to navigate’
There are a variety of options for substance use and addiction treatment in Larimer County, though it can be hard to find the right fit, said Lesley Brooks, chief of addiction medicine for SummitStone.
Over the last few years, Brooks said the various resource centers and clinics in Northern Colorado have come together to form a network of treatment providers to help connect people with the right treatment.
Colorado Opioid Synergy Larimer and Weld, or CO-SLAW, is a program that brings together eight clinics that provide medically assisted treatment to make that lifesaving treatment more accessible, Brooks said.
Medications used to treat drug addiction help with withdrawal and cravings, Brooks said. Clinics need to have specific licenses to prescribe certain medications, like methadone, which means treatment can be expensive or hard to access. The CO-SLAW network can help people get medically assisted treatment more quickly.
“It can be hard to navigate the system, there’s no question about it,” she said.
Brooks said they have a team of care coordinators who are well versed in the community resources, including payment methods for different treatments, and can help connect someone with medication and set up appointments.
The hospitals and county jails also work with this network of care providers, Brooks said.
When jail staff identify people during the booking process who want to participate in medically assisted treatment, trained doctors and nurses in the jail work with people to create a treatment plan.
Larimer County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Staci Shaffer said she could not release information on whether Roelfs participated in the program.
Shaffer said 443 people participated in the program in 2019 and 548 participated in 2020. More than 550 have participated so far this year, she said.
Once released, they are connected with resources to continue their care. There are 12 clinics the jail works with that have same-day or next-day appointments available. People are also given Naloxone or a prescription for it upon release, which can be used to treat a narcotic overdose in an emergency situation.
Shaffer said a lot of treatment is covered by Medicaid, and jail staff can help people register for Medicaid before they’re released.
Once the county behavioral health facility is completed in early 2023, Brooks said the county will have the ability to provide multiple levels of care, from crisis care to keeping up with patients in an outpatient capacity after they leave the facility.
One level of care the county is missing is respite care, which is a lower level of care — often peer-led — and more informal than a hospital or detox bed that provides short-term residential support for those recovering from substance addiction. It also gives families and caregivers a break from supporting their loved ones in recovery.
“A lot of problems can be solved if you give a family a break, give someone a safe place to be with a roof over their head and their basic needs met and wrap them and their family in services,” Brooks said.
‘I have a problem’
In August, the woman who supplied Roelfs with the heroin pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and introduction of contraband and was sentenced to six years in prison.
The Coloradoan is not naming her for this story because any ongoing public health or safety threat has been nullified by her incarceration.
“I’m praying for this girl all the time,” Rider said during the woman’s sentencing hearing, gesturing to her. “… I hope every time she sees of smells or thinks of heroin she gets sick and never wants (anything to do with it again).”
The woman spoke through tears at her sentencing hearing to apologize to Roelfs’ friends and family.
“In the past 18 months, I’ve identified I have a problem” and have become more comfortable asking for the necessary help, she said.
“Never in a million years did I intend for anything like this to happen. I wish I could take away all the pain I have caused.”
Rider has found comfort in her church community, which she said has supported her through this, and in seeing Roelfs’ son on a regular basis. He’ll be 3 in January, and he shares his mother’s “big beautiful brown eyes,” Rider said.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see (Roelfs) in action of being a mom too much,” Rider said. “… But when she was with him, she was always just really happy, full of joy.”
“I was hopeful that was going to be what saved Jenny, being a mom.”
Substance use and addiction treatment options in and near Larimer County
The variety of substance use and addiction treatment options can be hard to navigate. For those looking for more guidance, reach out for free to a care coordinator 24/7 at 1-844-944-7529. Below are some of the addiction recovery resources in and around Larimer County.
SummitStone offers a range of services, including intensive outpatient treatment, medically assisted treatment, residential treatment and peer support groups. People seeking treatment can begin same-day.
Front Range Clinic provides medically assisted treatment and other outpatient behavioral health counseling and treatment.
- Call: 970-493-9193
- Visit: frontrangemd.com
- Location: 1120 E. Elizabeth St., Constructing G, Suite 2, Fort Collins
Dawn Group Well being works with group companions to assist sufferers handle substance use together with their main care.
Salud Household Well being Facilities gives behavioral well being providers along with and through medical visits.
Northpoint gives inpatient and outpatient therapy.
Turning Level Heart for Youth & Household Improvement offers intensive youth residential therapy and outpatient care for teenagers, younger adults and households.
- Name: 970-221-0999
- Go to: turningpnt.org
- Location: 1644 S. Faculty Ave., Fort Collins
Concord Basis can present analysis and detox providers, residential therapy, intensive outpatient providers and different restoration assist providers. Workers can be found to 24 hours a day, twelve months a yr.
North Vary gives detox and therapy providers 24 hours a day, twelve months a yr, together with withdrawal administration providers.
Larimer County Jail in-custody deaths
January 2007-September 2021
- Might 18, 2007: Suicide
- March 13, 2010: Medical
- Jan. 6, 2011: Medical
- Jan. 30, 2011: Medical
- April 26, 2011: Medical
- July 28, 2014: Medical
- Dec. 6, 2017: Suicide
- Feb. 10, 2019: Suicide
- Feb. 18, 2020: Unintentional (Jenny Roelfs’ overdose dying)
- July 11, 2021: Medical
Sady Swanson covers public security, felony justice, Larimer County authorities and extra all through Northern Colorado. You possibly can ship your story concepts to her at sswanson@coloradoan.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan.
