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January 28, 2006
IL: State prisons Director outlines plan for treating people addicted to meth
State prisons Director Roger Walker outlines plan for treating meth addicts
By RON INGRAM - H&R Staff Writer
DECATUR - Ann is in treatment for methamphetamine addiction at the Gateway Project in Springfield after abusing the drug for 13 years.
"I finally got out, with a little nudge from law enforcement," said Ann, who did not give her last name. "My daughter got involved with meth, and she had her kids taken away from her. I have a 12-year-old son. I want to keep him from entering that world."
On Friday, Ann urged the state to initiate treatment programs for women inmates as she spoke to state officials, area sheriffs, social service agency personnel and local ministers. They gathered at the Law Enforcement Center to hear Illinois Department of Corrections Director Roger E. Walker Jr. outline a proposal to rehabilitate men incarcerated because of meth problems.
Walker assured Ann that programs for female inmates exist.
The initiative to help male inmates rejoin society as productive citizens was unveiled in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's recent State of the State address.
Friday's meeting was the third in a series to be held statewide in areas highly affected by meth-related offenses. The meetings' goal is to gain input from social service providers, community leaders and law enforcement officials to help develop the plan to reduce repeat offenses by meth users.
Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant that affects the central nervous system and can cause users to hallucinate and become psychotic and violent, Walker said. Incarcerated addicts will not shake the addiction while in prison without treatment; and there must be a system of social service support in place so when they are paroled they don't immediately commit robberies, burglaries and thefts to support a drug habit, he said.
The state this year will create a 200-bed meth unit at the 667-bed Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center in East St. Louis. The facility will be a dedicated drug prison and re-entry program, modeled on a program piloted two years ago at the Sheridan Correctional Center in Ottawa. Next year, Sheridan will be expanded to its full capacity of 1,300 inmates from the present 950 inmates, with 200 of those spaces used for another meth unit.
Inmates at both facilities will participate in integrated programs including drug treatment, vocational training, education and closely supervised community re-entry.
Walker said the program's estimated cost the first year is $7 million, with $4.7 million coming from federal funds and $16 million the second year, with $1.9 million in federal funds.
The Illinois Department of Human Services will be a partner in the new effort, said Theodora Binion Taylor, director of its Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse. The effort at Sheridan over the past two years shows treatment works, she said.
Recidivism rates at Sheridan among men in the treatment program have been 50 percent less than the normal rate, said John Pugliese of the Gateway Project. The state's normal recidivism rate for males is about 56 percent.
http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2006/01/28/news/local_news/1012713.txt
Posted by lois at January 28, 2006 07:55 PM