By C1 Staff
NEWPORT, Ky. — The Campbell County Detention Center has instituted a heroin addiction program in response to a rising number of addicts in the inmate population.
WCPO reports that more than half the jail’s population is there for heroin or heroin-related charges.
Some inmates are placed on a methadone maintenance program, which provides an alternative to the opioid in heroin.
The jail has a $980,000 contract with a medical provider and budgets an extra $325,000 for addiction treatment, which is up $125,000 from a few years ago.
Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous members assist in the substance abuse programs in the hopes of turning the inmates’ lives around in a relatively short period of time.
“We know we’re not going to have them for an extended period of time, so we may have that 60- or 90- or 120-day period to try and help them, to gry and get them to the point where we can get them out the door and become part of society again,” said Campbell County Jailer James A. Daley.