Jenny Burton urges accountability-focused 'Gabriel Plan' for addiction, cites prison program outcomes in Missoula talk

Jenny Burton, a recovering addict who later earned a Truman Scholarship and a degree from the University of Washington, told a Reserve Street Public Working Group audience in Missoula on June 26, 2026, that her 10-point Gabriel Plan focuses on accountability, skills training and abstinence as paths out of chronic addiction and homelessness.

Burton said the Gabriel Plan is taught inside correctional facilities under a contract with the Washington Department of Corrections and described it as a roughly 26-week, data-driven curriculum that emphasizes behavioral change. "When I stand up here...everything I do is really focused on developing infrastructure and systems to help people like myself get up out of the mess," she said.

Why it matters: Burton framed her approach as an alternative to what she called an entrenched "help industry" that prioritizes organizational outputs and funding streams over measurable, individual outcomes. Her comments crossed into local policy terrain because the Reserve Street Public Working Group formed to address safety and homelessness in Missoula's busiest corridor has been meeting with city and county officials.

Burton offered program metrics and claimed low reoffense among participants. "My program currently is roughly a 26-week program...I've served over 170 people since contracting with Department of Corrections inside of facilities. I have 52 people that have been released. Only one person is reoffended," she said, adding that she observed about nine to eleven technical violations and roughly five relapses among those released. She also said her participants are "clean and sober, not on medication assisted treatment."

Audience members pressed Burton on terminology and oversight. When one attendee asked whether she was "triggered by phrases like 'continuum of care,'" Burton replied that some commonly used labels obscure who is actually being helped and that "we're not focused on the people that we serve. We are 100% focused on organizations."

Burton also criticized aspects of housing-focused responses to homelessness. She said simply providing housing without accompanying skill-building and accountability can leave people without the tools to sustain independent living. "If you give that person a place to lay, food to eat, clothes on your back because you've made certain choices in your life...why would you even try to take care of yourself?" she asked.

Her remarks included claims about incentives in the sector. Burton said she reviewed nonprofit tax filings and cited executive and leadership salaries "upwards of... $250,000 and $500,000 a year," arguing that compensation structures and academic narratives can entrench policies that do not prioritize individual outcomes. She also told the audience she and host Kevin Davis recently met with Missoula County Attorney Matt Jennings and other local officials and found substantial alignment on accountability-focused reforms.

On scope and limitations, Burton said incarceration can provide separation and a captive audience for intensive programming but that the goal should be to create other institutional or community-based models that produce similar internal change and skill-building. "Prison isn't the answer, but prison is an answer," she said, adding that criminal accountability can be a lever to offer opportunity and structured intervention.

Questions about evaluation and standards came from the audience. Attendees asked how success is measured and whether peer-support hires should be qualified beyond "lived experience." Burton said she requires students who become peer-facing staff to complete her program and to demonstrate sustained recovery and practical skills before hiring them as staff.

The meeting closed with an invitation to buy Burton's book, The Gabriel Plan, and with host Kevin Davis encouraging continued participation in the working group's Friday Zoom meetings. The group said it will continue to engage local officials on Reserve Street safety and homelessness issues.

What the transcript shows and what it does not: Burton presented program-level outcome numbers and cited tax filings and executive orders as sources for sector-wide claims; those supporting documents were described as referenced in her book or derived from filings she reviewed. The meeting did not produce formal votes or policy commitments; officials' alignment was reported by Burton and the host based on prior meetings, not as formal local-government action.