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WARDEN: LIMITS OF DRUG REHAB INEVITABLE IN PENNSYLVANIA
County Prison Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania - Last time Nicole LaTorre got drug treatment, it was 24 hours a day for 28 days. It didn't work.
Now that the 23-year-old is locked up at Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania on drug-related charges, she's trying treatment again. She gets about four hours a week.
Why should it work now?
"I feel it in my heart this time. I truly believe. I want this," she said.
Drug experts say LaTorre's resolve will play a role in her fight to stay clean, but without intensive treatment she faces long odds against success.
Pennsylvania Warden Gene Fischi said he knows intensive treatment is a more effective way to wean addicts from drugs, but he says the cost of such a program make it a "pipe dream" for the county prison.
It would double or triple the cost of housing at least 100 Pennsylvania inmates, he said. "That's too much of a burden on Pennsylvania taxpayers," he said, adding that the prison spends about $60 a day to house and treat each prisoner.
Intensive drug treatment would be eight to 10 hours a day, and is offered in most Pennsylvania state correctional institutions, including Dallas, Retreat and Frackville.
While the financial cost is high, drug treatment experts say intensive treatment reduces the number of drug-addicted inmates who later return to crime. In a California study, treatment has been shown to save up to seven times its cost through reduced crime, incarceration and health costs.
Fischi estimated that inmates convicted of drug-related crimes account for 75 to 80 percent of the prison population. An example of a drug-related crime would be a convenience store robbery for drug money.
"I'm a firm believer that intensive drug treatment is probably the only way to get these people to stop offending and lower our recidivism," Fischi said, adding that 65 to 70 percent of prisoners are jailed again after being released.
"It's the only way they'll recover and get out of crime," said Katherine van Wormer, a University of Northern Iowa professor of social work and author of two books on criminal justice.
County Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he understands more thorough drug treatment is needed, and is working with Fischi and Mike Donahue, director of drug and alcohol programs in Luzerne counties, to come up with different options.
Urban said his interest in drug treatment increased after an April debate on the topic among county commissioner candidates. The other commissioner candidates on the November ballot have also expressed interest in expanding drug treatment at the Pennsylvania prison.
"I've always believed going to jail is for two purposes: punishment and rehabilitation," Urban said. "Just simply locking people up, releasing them and them going back to using doesn't solve the problem."
Donahue said he is reviewing existing programs and trying to "improve the inmates' opportunities toward obtaining recovery," he said.
Currently, the Pennsylvania prison offers 12-step programs, which have a religious component, and SCOOP meetings, in which volunteers help Pennsylvania inmates learn how to "Stay Clean and Out Of Prison." A Wilkes-Barre company provides inpatient evaluation and 60 hours a week of drug and alcohol counseling shared among all inmates who need the counseling.
Van Wormer suggested adding a "rational recovery/strengths" program. In "strengths" counseling, the counselor plays up the strengths of a prisoner who is resistant to treatment, empowering them to ask for help when they're ready.
Corrective social work expert Lisa Larson of the University of Michigan suggested creating a separate wing in the Pennsylvania prison, or a separate facility, for addicted prisoners.
Keith Ferrell, of Ferrell and Associates in Wilkes-Barre, said the Pennsylvania prison previously had a separate halfway house for addicted inmates and inmates with psychological problems, but it closed about five years ago due to funding cuts. He hopes the new interest in rehabilitation will keep other programs from fading away.
Ferrell's group provides drug counseling at the Pennsylvania prison and was paid $76,260 for services this year.
Last year, 495 Pennsylvania prisoners were admitted into Ferrell-administered drug and alcohol programs, receiving 950 hours of treatment split nearly evenly between group and individual counseling.
Seeking Solutions
While unsure what, if any, new programs will be added at the Pennsylvania prison, the county is discussing different options.
Donahue said he would like to add at least one case manager to help prison counselors, and is taking steps to secure additional funds for treatment.
He is helping prepare an application seeking about $100,000 in state funds to increase pre- and post-trial services. That would include evaluation and counseling that help judges see the benefits of treatment for particular offenders.
Also, the county plans next month to bid out its contract for drug treatment services. Ferrell said he has been providing counseling services to the Pennsylvania prison for nearly 30 years.
LaTorre, of Mountain Top, started drinking beer and smoking marijuana at age 12, was shooting heroin by 15 and was homeless at 22.
She said she's ready to get clean.
"Deep down I don't want to use," said LaTorre, who was arrested April 1 with her sister when they tried to steal from Wegmans. She was charged with possession of controlled substances and drug paraphernalia and jailed. Being imprisoned has kept her cleaner longer than she'd ever been before, her mother said.
"I believe jail saved me even though I don't like it here," LaTorre said. She is proud to be part of the STRAIGHT-UP program, which sends Pennsylvania inmates to schools to try to warn young people to stay clean.
When she was a student herself, she heard from a young woman in the program. It didn't stop her from becoming an addict.
"My heart went out to her, but I didn't feel it because I wasn't going through it," LaTorre said of the young woman. "I was only dabbling. I didn't think I was going to be an addict."
She doesn't have to stay an addict, says the prison counseling services provider. "There's a preconception and misconception that people there can't be rehabilitated," Ferrell said. When a prisoner dedicates to treatment, up to 90 percent stay out of prison at least two years, he said.
For LaTorre, treatment in prison has allowed her to explore her new religious convictions and see the world through sober eyes. She clings to the memory of something her mother once told her.
"It's kind of like you're standing on the beach and you can see your kid drowning, and you can't save her from going under," recalled her mother, Denise Babel of Mountain Top. "That's how I feel. In jail I know she's safe."
County Prison Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania - Last time Nicole LaTorre got drug treatment, it was 24 hours a day for 28 days. It didn't work.
Now that the 23-year-old is locked up at Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania on drug-related charges, she's trying treatment again. She gets about four hours a week.
Why should it work now?
"I feel it in my heart this time. I truly believe. I want this," she said.
Drug experts say LaTorre's resolve will play a role in her fight to stay clean, but without intensive treatment she faces long odds against success.
Pennsylvania Warden Gene Fischi said he knows intensive treatment is a more effective way to wean addicts from drugs, but he says the cost of such a program make it a "pipe dream" for the county prison.
It would double or triple the cost of housing at least 100 Pennsylvania inmates, he said. "That's too much of a burden on Pennsylvania taxpayers," he said, adding that the prison spends about $60 a day to house and treat each prisoner.
Intensive drug treatment would be eight to 10 hours a day, and is offered in most Pennsylvania state correctional institutions, including Dallas, Retreat and Frackville.
While the financial cost is high, drug treatment experts say intensive treatment reduces the number of drug-addicted inmates who later return to crime. In a California study, treatment has been shown to save up to seven times its cost through reduced crime, incarceration and health costs.
Fischi estimated that inmates convicted of drug-related crimes account for 75 to 80 percent of the prison population. An example of a drug-related crime would be a convenience store robbery for drug money.
"I'm a firm believer that intensive drug treatment is probably the only way to get these people to stop offending and lower our recidivism," Fischi said, adding that 65 to 70 percent of prisoners are jailed again after being released.
"It's the only way they'll recover and get out of crime," said Katherine van Wormer, a University of Northern Iowa professor of social work and author of two books on criminal justice.
County Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he understands more thorough drug treatment is needed, and is working with Fischi and Mike Donahue, director of drug and alcohol programs in Luzerne counties, to come up with different options.
Urban said his interest in drug treatment increased after an April debate on the topic among county commissioner candidates. The other commissioner candidates on the November ballot have also expressed interest in expanding drug treatment at the Pennsylvania prison.
"I've always believed going to jail is for two purposes: punishment and rehabilitation," Urban said. "Just simply locking people up, releasing them and them going back to using doesn't solve the problem."
Donahue said he is reviewing existing programs and trying to "improve the inmates' opportunities toward obtaining recovery," he said.
Currently, the Pennsylvania prison offers 12-step programs, which have a religious component, and SCOOP meetings, in which volunteers help Pennsylvania inmates learn how to "Stay Clean and Out Of Prison." A Wilkes-Barre company provides inpatient evaluation and 60 hours a week of drug and alcohol counseling shared among all inmates who need the counseling.
Van Wormer suggested adding a "rational recovery/strengths" program. In "strengths" counseling, the counselor plays up the strengths of a prisoner who is resistant to treatment, empowering them to ask for help when they're ready.
Corrective social work expert Lisa Larson of the University of Michigan suggested creating a separate wing in the Pennsylvania prison, or a separate facility, for addicted prisoners.
Keith Ferrell, of Ferrell and Associates in Wilkes-Barre, said the Pennsylvania prison previously had a separate halfway house for addicted inmates and inmates with psychological problems, but it closed about five years ago due to funding cuts. He hopes the new interest in rehabilitation will keep other programs from fading away.
Ferrell's group provides drug counseling at the Pennsylvania prison and was paid $76,260 for services this year.
Last year, 495 Pennsylvania prisoners were admitted into Ferrell-administered drug and alcohol programs, receiving 950 hours of treatment split nearly evenly between group and individual counseling.
Seeking Solutions
While unsure what, if any, new programs will be added at the Pennsylvania prison, the county is discussing different options.
Donahue said he would like to add at least one case manager to help prison counselors, and is taking steps to secure additional funds for treatment.
He is helping prepare an application seeking about $100,000 in state funds to increase pre- and post-trial services. That would include evaluation and counseling that help judges see the benefits of treatment for particular offenders.
Also, the county plans next month to bid out its contract for drug treatment services. Ferrell said he has been providing counseling services to the Pennsylvania prison for nearly 30 years.
LaTorre, of Mountain Top, started drinking beer and smoking marijuana at age 12, was shooting heroin by 15 and was homeless at 22.
She said she's ready to get clean.
"Deep down I don't want to use," said LaTorre, who was arrested April 1 with her sister when they tried to steal from Wegmans. She was charged with possession of controlled substances and drug paraphernalia and jailed. Being imprisoned has kept her cleaner longer than she'd ever been before, her mother said.
"I believe jail saved me even though I don't like it here," LaTorre said. She is proud to be part of the STRAIGHT-UP program, which sends Pennsylvania inmates to schools to try to warn young people to stay clean.
When she was a student herself, she heard from a young woman in the program. It didn't stop her from becoming an addict.
"My heart went out to her, but I didn't feel it because I wasn't going through it," LaTorre said of the young woman. "I was only dabbling. I didn't think I was going to be an addict."
She doesn't have to stay an addict, says the prison counseling services provider. "There's a preconception and misconception that people there can't be rehabilitated," Ferrell said. When a prisoner dedicates to treatment, up to 90 percent stay out of prison at least two years, he said.
For LaTorre, treatment in prison has allowed her to explore her new religious convictions and see the world through sober eyes. She clings to the memory of something her mother once told her.
"It's kind of like you're standing on the beach and you can see your kid drowning, and you can't save her from going under," recalled her mother, Denise Babel of Mountain Top. "That's how I feel. In jail I know she's safe."
