News Photo by Julie Riddle Speaker and recovering addict David Clayton, standing, speaks to police and corrections officers at the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday.

ALPENA — When it comes to fighting drug crime, police carry a tool more powerful than handcuffs, a recovering addict told a roomful of officers.

They can offer hope, he said.

With drug-fueled crime filling the county jail, local police need to try whatever it takes to fight addiction in Northeast Michigan, Alpena County Sheriff Steven Kieliszewski said.

This month, his office launches Hope Not Handcuffs, a program that invites people with substance use disorders to ask police for help kicking their addiction.

Departments participating in the program will connect those people with trained volunteer “angels” who will provide them with resources and help them get treatment.

Alpena police and recovery advocates already work hard to keep drugs out of the area and fight addiction. Adding the Hope Not Handcuffs program to those efforts isn’t overkill, because the drugs keep coming, Kieliszewski said.

“I’ll take you back into the jail and show you 95% of our inmates who are here because of narcotics,” Kieliszewski said. “We’ve gotta do something.”

At a Thursday evening training at the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office, presenter David Clayton told police and corrections officers about the addiction that landed him behind bars many times and made him contemplate ending his life.

Clayton’s recovery story offered a perspective on addiction that police don’t often get to see, said Undersheriff Erik Smith.

“Law enforcement tends to see addiction as a choice,” Smith said.

It’s a disease, Clayton told the officers, describing losing friends to overdoses and suicide because of that sickness.

The disease hurts the community, too, as addiction motivates retail theft, break-ins, check fraud, assaults, and other crimes, Kieliszewski said.

When he started work as an Alpena-area police officer, the jail rarely housed people accused of serious crimes, he said.

Today, “It’s all felons,” the sheriff said. “And it’s all drugs.”

Hope Not Handcuffs is an initiative of Families Against Narcotics, a statewide program providing support for people with a loved one fighting addiction.

With its new designation as a Hope Not Handcuffs partner, the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office promises that people with substance abuse disorders can expect support, compassion, and respect from police, said Clayton, FAN program director.

Police officers are taught to be tough, “not touchy-feely,” Kieliszewski said.

Offering kindness and resources instead of a gruff word could mean the difference between an escalation of the problem and someone getting the help they need to get better, he said.

Corrections officers witness regular cycles of inmates leaving for addiction treatment and then ending up back in jail for another crime or probation violation, Alpena County Jail Administrator Christina Bednarski told Clayton after his presentation.

“We don’t want them back,” Bednarski said, asking how Alpena could break the cycle.

Alpena’s lack of sober living housing for people leaving addiction treatment hurts its chances of helping people kick the cycle, as does a shortage of affordable housing in general, Clayton said.

When police have to administer the overdose-stopping drug Narcan to the same person over and over, they may wonder why they continue helping people who don’t seem to be doing anything to help themselves, Clayton told the officers.

“That same person who needed narcaning three times a week now stands before you to educate you,” he said, urging the officers to not give up on people fighting addiction.

“I will go into that jail and tell every single person that they’re worth something,” Clayton said. “And that there’s hope for them.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.