By JASON BROWN
The Advocate
LAFAYETTE, La. — The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office is expanding its drug rehabilitation efforts with the creation of an intensive inpatient drug treatment program.
Reentry Housing 4 Addictive Behaviors will provide affordable access to drug treatment for inmates or arrestees in the pre-trial and post conviction stage, said Marie Collins, treatment programs manager at the Sheriff’s Office.
The program came out of the understanding that a large portion of inmates, estimated to be between 70 and 80 percent, have substance abuse issues. REHAB will complement the department’s successful licensed intensive outpatient program that began about a year-and-a-half ago, Collins said.
That program, which was the first of its kind to be started by a sheriff’s office, started with 12 participants and now operates with a capacity of 24 and a continuing waiting list.
REHAB will begin Oct. 20 with eight participants and quickly move up to 16. The program lasts for six months and participants will be housed at the Work Release Center.
“I don’t know how big this is going to get,” said Rob Reardon, director of the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.
The first few months will be the most-intensive portion of the program. Collins said the goal is to slowly reintegrate participants back into society, making them more independent by providing them with the tools they need to remain off drugs.
“The longer we supervise them, the longer we manage them, then the more successful they’ll be,” Reardon said.
After the first month, participants will get a job and the daily fees will change from $5 per day to a sliding rate based on their job income. At most the rate will be $22 per day. Collins said that rate is far less than what private companies charge, which can cost more than $15,000.
“To a lot of the inmates $10,000 is unreachable,” Reardon said. “Some don’t make that in a year.”
The waiting list to get into one of the private sites also is lengthy and at times requires participants to leave the area to seek help.
Both Reardon and Collins said the department also plans to soon create an intensive outpatient program for juveniles. Reardon said there is a lack of such services offered in the area.
Copyright 2008 Capital City Press