INMATES PRAISE FAYETTE JAIL DRUG PROGRAM

But Success Story Could Have Sad Ending For Lack Of Funds

When William Holland arrived at the Lexington-Fayette County Detention
Center, he had a habit of half-an-ounce of crack cocaine a day. His
emotions were roiling, he said. He couldn't wait to get out. In
August, Holland, 34, enrolled in the Hope Therapeutic Program, which
provides drug and alcohol treatment inside the jail. Five days a week,
he takes classes that break down the 12 steps of recovery.

Holland, who started drinking at age 9, says he has changed and, he
hopes, his life has, too. "It's a blessing that I'm in here and it
didn't work my way," said Holland, who is in jail for trafficking
cocaine. Since the treatment program began two years ago, it has
earned the praise of jail officials and judges.

Inmates have asked to serve extra time to complete it, and
administrators have drawn up plans to double the number of men, for a
total of 60, and start a program for women. But uncertain funding
means that the jail's only drug and alcohol treatment has an uncertain
future. The program was started with grants, but those ran out in
March. Since then, the Hope Center, which also runs a homeless shelter
for men as well as a residential drug and alcohol treatment program
for men and women, has supported the jail program.

In August, the city contributed $50,000, enough to keep it going until
February. The Hope Center has asked the Urban County Council and the
state to split the $115,000 it would take to run the program through
June and the $425,000 it would cost to expand it next year. Walter
May, a spokesman for the Hope Center, said that the program would end
if the county and state did not agree to pay for it. "As good as this
program is we have higher priorities in other areas, and we can't keep
shorting them to run this program," May said. David Stevens, chairman
of the council's budget and finance committee, said the council would
consider the Hope Center's request next week. "They are on the list,
and the council in the past has been pretty sympathetic to them,"
Stevens said. State Commissioner of Corrections John Rees says he
supports expanding treatment at the Fayette County jail to include
women, and would provide funding in exchange for allowing state female
inmates to participate. However, he hasn't promised a specific amount.
Few of Kentucky's jails -- where 6,400 men and women are held -- offer
drug and alcohol treatment. Chris Block, the Department of Corrections
program administrator for drug and alcohol treatment, said that an
estimated 60 percent of inmates are addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Eighty-five percent abuse alcohol or drugs, Block said. Until the Hope
Center began the program, Fayette County did not offer drug or alcohol
treatment.

Continuing it is a no-brainer, said Ray Sabbatine, former Fayette
County jailer and now a corrections consultant. Offering treatment can
reduce the number of inmates returning to jail or prison, saving money
in the long run, he said. "We pay too much to incarcerate to have
people be in a revolving-door situation," Sabbatine said. In two
years, 156 men have completed the four-month Hope program or two
months of it before they were released.

Thirteen have been rearrested in Fayette County. Neither the jail nor
the Hope Center has tracked whether the program's graduates have been
arrested in another county. Chief Circuit Court Judge Sheila Isaac
says that defendants have asked her to leave them in jail so they can
complete the program, and she has required defendants to finish before
they are released. "Incarceration is a wonderful time to treat people,
because they don't have the same temptations as they would if they
were outside," Isaac said. "They're more disciplined. They're more
motivated." The inmates in the Hope program are separated from others
at the jail. They begin each day with breakfast at 6:30. Unlike other
inmates, they are required to exercise each morning -- jumping jacks
or push-ups -- and clean their living areas three times a day. They
take classes, aimed at changing their thinking and thus their
behavior, and participate in community meetings. The program is
modeled on the Hope Center's recovery programs outside the jail. May
said it works because the men learn about their addictions. "People
for the first time learn what it is that's affecting their behavior,"
May said. "They learn they can do something about it." On Monday, in a
basement classroom, 30 men in jail-issued greens listened as Troy
Town-send spoke about using drugs and alcohol to numb pain. He talked
about thinking that drinking would make him a man, wanting to fit in
and the liquid courage provided by alcohol. He told the men that they
were only as emotionally mature as the day they started abusing drugs
or alcohol.

He told about drinking up one paycheck, the resulting arguments with
his wife, the unpaid bills, and his return to the liquor store with
the next paycheck. The men nodded as Town-send spoke and chimed in
with their own comments: "That's what I did." Like the other
instructors, Townsend is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. The
experience helps them lead the men through recovery, said Gordon
Chandler, the program's director and a former addict himself. "I've
been where they've been," Chandler said. "I haven't been incarcerated,
but I know what they're going through with withdrawal."