More than 1,600 people have used Butte County’s sobering center since it opened in Chico nine months ago.
The center was pitched as an alternative to jail or the emergency room, the two places intoxicated people were typically taken. It’s not a treatment facility, but a place to sober up and get connected to support services.
Its opening came amid growing concern for substance use in the region. Butte County’s drug overdose rate is nearly twice the state average, according to the county’s 2023 Community Health Assessment.
While law enforcement agencies support the center, the number of people they actually send there is low.
About 3% of people who’ve been referred to the center were taken there by law enforcement. Most were from the Chico Police Department.
“When people are living out in more rural areas, they're less likely to become intoxicated in a public place and then do something that draws the attention of law enforcement.”- Kory Honea, Butte County Sheriff
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office has referred just one person to the sobering center since it opened last August.
Sheriff Kory Honea said that’s mainly due to the jurisdiction his deputies cover.
“When people are living out in more rural areas, they're less likely to become intoxicated in a public place and then do something that draws the attention of law enforcement,” Honea said.
He also said intoxicated people arrested by his office are often engaged in other crimes, so the center wouldn’t be a suitable place for them to go.
“We don't want to create a situation where we put the lives or the safety of the staff of the sobering center,” Honea said, “or, for that matter, other people who may be there at risk because you have somebody who's not in the right frame of mind to be there.”
Still, Honea sees the center as a valuable option in the right circumstances, especially because it offers something jail typically doesn’t — a chance to connect people with resources that could help them break the cycle of substance use.
“That's not what my deputies do. We're not drug and alcohol abuse counselors. We don't have time to do that,” Honea said. “That's why I think having this resource provides an opportunity, at least in some cases, for people to get out of that really, really challenging cycle.”
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office isn’t the only agency with low referral numbers to the sobering center. Usage has been low across the board.
Intake at the sobering center takes about seven minutes, compared to about an hour to book someone into jail. But Behavioral Health Director Scott Kennelly said that efficiency hasn’t translated into widespread use, particularly among agencies that are located far from Chico.
He said the low numbers aren’t surprising for a new program, and he’s confident they’ll grow over time.
“As we build data and show successful outcomes, I think trust will build with law enforcement and they'll utilize them more,” Kennelly said.
Provider says center works and eases pressure on jails, ERs
The sobering center is managed by Horizons Treatment Services, which says it’s already helping reduce repeat offenses in Butte County.
Eliseo Becerra, Horizon’s chief of strategic growth and special operations, said the center is a more efficient and effective way to handle people under the influence.
“We know that jailing someone for public intoxication rarely changes behavior and sometimes can make it worse,” Becerra said. “What we do and with our approach, it helps reduce the repeat incarcerations and interactions with law enforcement and the justice system overall.”
“We want our law enforcement to be able to have room to handle more appropriate issues. We want our emergency departments to be available to us … they are not meant to be dealing with chronic substance use disorders.”- Shauna Goodman, National Sobering Collaborative director
Shauna Goodman agrees. She’s the director of the National Sobering Collaborative, which includes Butte County’s sobering center.
“We can't incarcerate our way out of these issues,” she said, noting that sobering centers are meant to relieve pressure on systems that have become default responses to public intoxication.
“We want our law enforcement to be able to have room to handle more appropriate issues. We want our emergency departments to be available to us in the event we break a bone, in the event we have a heart attack,” Goodman said, “they are not meant to be dealing with chronic substance use disorders.”
Goodman said people aren’t always ready to seek treatment. But sobering centers can be a way to make them aware of the services out there for when they’re ready.
“I often compare sobering centers to dating in some ways,” she said. “When you are on a first date, you are not ready to accept a marriage proposal. You want to learn more. You’re building trust. You’re building rapport and that can often be people coming back and forth.”
Goodman said she’d like to see similar centers in every community.
“A lot of times we think of the issues that we're addressing in sobering centers as urban problems, but it's happening in our rural communities,” she said. “It's happening in our suburban communities and these are communities that need to be served with these services as well.”
There are 26 sobering centers in California. Goodman says the state is pushing the model forward for the rest of the nation.
