COLUMBA BUSH, DRUG CZAR VISIT COLLIER JAIL

Tuesday was not an ordinary day for 27 men and seven women in the Collier
County Jail.

As the two groups of inmates were engaged in separate counseling sessions
for drug and substance abuse addiction, in came Columba Bush, wife of Gov.
Jeb Bush, and James McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control.

The twosome made a brief visit to the jail to get an idea of how inmates
like the treatment program, called Project Recovery. Program participants
are in segregated quarters from the other jail population during their
treatment, which they enter voluntarily or under court order.

Earlier in the day, Bush and McDonough were in Fort Myers for a luncheon at
the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in recognition of Red Ribbon Week, to
promote drug-free schools and similar programs. They also visited the Teen
Challenge residential drug treatment facility in Pine Manor in a show of
support for similar programs.

'"We have been talking to Mr. McDonough about this program since February,"
said Vicki Freeman, mental health counselor for the Collier jail.

McDonough, who fielded all of the questions to the inmates, told them the
governor's office is banking on them to succeed, to help justify program
funding for future inmates who need substance abuse treatment.

McDonough was appointed the state's drug czar by Bush. Previously, from
1969 to 1999, he was director of stategy for the Office of National Drug
Control Policy for the White House.

Most of the inmates said they started using drugs or alcohol in their
teens, or while serving in the military, and it snowballed out of control.
One woman said she had been a nurse who had easy access to narcotics.

"We're hoping we can find a system that works," McDonough said of the
treatment program. "I actually believe this system can work. It has the
science behind it."

Still, he told the inmates that it boils to down to their attitude and
determination to stay clean once they get out.

"In the end, it is free will," McDonough said. "You have to resolve to stay
straight."

Project Recovery was started in the Collier jail with men in 1992 and now
has 27 men taking part; the women's program was started in 1998 and can
have a maximum of 12 women. The program is paid for by profits from
inmates' purchases at the jail commissary, Freeman said.

Nationwide, only 10 percent of jails have substance abuse treatment
programs for inmates, she said. Statistics were not readily available for
how many Florida jails have such programs.

The recidivism rate at Project Recovery among male inmates in 1999 was 17.5
percent, and it was 16 percent among the female inmates, she said.

Most of the inmates told McDonough they were thankful for the program.

The governor has established a goal of reducing substance use by 50 percent
by 2005 by enhancing prevention programs, McDonough said.

Participants in programs like Project Recovery are being monitored for the
next few years to see what works, he said.

In the last two years, Bush has increased funding for treatment programs by
$24 million, for programs in prisons and jails and juvenile offender
programs, he said. The funding is earmarked around the state for programs
through the state Department of Children and Families.

In Spanish, Columba Bush wished the male inmates good luck in their
treatment. To the female inmates, she said: "I wish you all the very best.
It is so important to get healthy again and do the best things in life. I
know you can do it. Everything is possible in life."