Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
HOLDEN, W.Va. (AP) — State officials plan to open at least one more inpatient substance-abuse treatment program at the Southwestern Regional Jail in Logan County.
The newest treatment unit will be for women, and jail officials hope to have it operating by July 1, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported (http://bit.ly/1rdikas ).
A similar program was launched at the jail on April 11. It serves inmates who have been sentenced to the Division of Corrections, which already operates residential substance-abuse treatment units at nine of West Virginia's prisons. Many inmates who have been sentenced to corrections custody are housed in regional jails because of prison overcrowding.
"On any given day we have approximately 1,000 inmates sentenced to the custody of the Division of Corrections still sitting in regional jail beds," Mike Coleman, deputy commissioner for the DOC, said. "It'll help them get into treatment much more quickly than waiting to come to a Division of Corrections facility."
Twenty-eight men are enrolled in the program, which follows a "therapeutic community" model, and assists inmates with substance addictions on their journey of recovery and rehabilitation as they prepare to return to life outside of jail.
"It's not just something where they come and sit in a classroom for a couple hours a day and somebody stands in front and gives a talking-head lecture," Coleman said. "There's a lot of work that goes into the program."
___
Information from: The Charleston Gazette-Mail, http://wvgazettemail.com.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
