cannabisnews.com: Wants Money to Keep Ex-Prisoners Off of Drugs!





Wants Money to Keep Ex-Prisoners Off of Drugs!
Posted by FoM on December 15, 1998 at 06:40:32 PT
We need quality treatment not more prisons!
Cincinatti, Ohio Hamilton County officials want the state to budget $1.5 million a year -- including $150,000 for Hamilton County -- to help keep former prisoners off drugs!
Treatment for drug or alcohol addiction is available at the new River City Correctional Center, but there's no money for follow-up once the prisoners are freed.The state built the River City jail and provides the county $5 million a year to operate it.County Commissioner John Dowlin said Monday that county officials will meet Friday with Reginald Wilkinson, director of Ohio's prison system, to ask that the state consider paying for the follow-up programs.``It's a good investment. It doesn't cost as much as the initial treatment a person needs,'' said Nelly Rimini, director of counseling and assessment for Talbert House, an agency that operates some drug rehabilitation programs for Hamilton County.Dowlin, who helped create a special court to handle cases of defendants with drug problems, hopes to persuade Wilkinson and state lawmakers to back the proposal.If that doesn't work, the county will try to fund the programs itself, Dowlin said.Wilkinson said there is no money in his current prison budget for programs to help addicts after their release. Ohio's next two-year budget cycle begins July 1, 1999.``It's something we need to explore,'' Wilkinson said. ``There are other jurisdictions in the state that want to do something similar.''River City, a $9 million jail that opened three months ago to house 200 felons, is one of 14 community-based jails the state has paid to built and operate around Ohio. Three more are planned.The jails were intended to ease overcrowding in state prisons and to provide local housing and treatment of prisoners convicted of lower-level felonies who serve no more than six months in the local jails, compared to longer terms in state prisons.Wright State University researchers found that drug-abusing ex-convicts who spent six months or more in treatment were significantly less likely to be rearrested and charged with crimes of violence or crimes typically associated with supporting a drug habit than those with less or no treatment.A sample of alcohol- and drug-abusing ex-convicts who received treatment showed that 19 percent reported being arrested on criminal charges the year after treatment, down from 60 percent the year prior to treatment, according to a study done for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.
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Comment #1 posted by Connie Johnson on March 03, 2000 at 11:48:21 PT:
Louisiana Needs Funds Too!!!
I'm in the state of Lousiana and I would like to see the same service offered in the state of Louisiana
Apostolic Full Gospel Fellowship International
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