BUDGET CUTS LEAVE FOUR DRUG COUNSELORS IN ENTIRE PRISON SYSTEM

Budget cuts at the Corrections Department will leave four counselors to
handle drug and alcohol treatment for the 21,000 prisoners in South
Carolina, the director of prison drug treatment says.

A $1.2 million contract with Correctional Medical Services, which ran the
state's only residential drug treatment program for inmates, has been
canceled. The program will end in June.

The department also decided to end a 56-bed program that provided treatment
to work-release inmates at Watkins Pre-Release Center in Columbia. A
federal grant ending next month paid for that program.

Prison officials said they cannot pay for drug treatment in the face of $38
million in proposed budget cuts. Half of the 21,000 prisoners have drug
problems, according to the department.

Having only four staff counselors to handle the drug and alcohol treatment
could endanger the public, said Tank Shuler, director of the division of
substance abuse services for the prison system.

"Those individuals are coming back to your communities and they will be
coming back with the same degree of problems, if not worse, than they left
with," Shuler said.

The Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville offered a residential
treatment program to 384 male inmates, who stayed for nine months to a
year, he said.

"It's been very successful," said Shuler, who estimated that less than 10
percent of those who graduated from the program returned to prison.

Not having the programs probably will mean more disciplinary problems and
medical visits by inmates, he said.

The program cuts come as the department prepares for a second round of job
layoffs. Ninety-one temporary workers were released from their jobs earlier
this week. Hundreds of other probationary employees, including guards, may
be let go May 16, said Corrections Department spokeswoman Cheryl Bates-Lee.