JAIL MIGHT LOSE DRUG COUNSELING PROGRAM

Center Lost Grant That Paid For It

The city jail might lose its only drug and alcohol abuse recovery
program for inmates next month.

The Hope Center, which runs the Hope Center Therapeutic Community at
the Fayette County Detention Center, could be forced to close the
program because of a lack of money.

In 2002, the Hope Center opened the $166,000-a-year recovery program
at the jail using grant money that dried up in March. Since then, the
Hope Center has spent more than $80,000 of its own money to run the
program.

The jail's recovery program has been successful, but the money will
have to come from somewhere else, said Cecil Dunn, the Hope Center's
executive director.

"We just can't keep it up," he said. "We endanger all the programs if
we're not careful and we continue to go too much longer."

The Hope Center's board will meet in late September to decide whether
it will shut down the jail's substance abuse program.

If the program is cut, it would be phased out over 30 to 60 days so
that inmates have an opportunity to complete it, Dunn said. "We're in
the business of helping people. We're not just going to get them
halfway through the program and then stop. We're not going to be able
to help them in the future, but we're certainly not going to abandon
the ones we have right now."

Since the program began, 118 inmates have graduated and only nine have
been back behind bars.

The recovery program, which has 32 current enrollees, is the same one
used at the men's and women's Hope Center sites.

Inmates volunteer for the program, which takes four to six months to
complete. The participants all live in the same housing area and
complete a 28-lesson workbook program that puts into action the 12
steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The inmates in the program are taught how to change their behavior,
handle situations differently and have fewer conflicts with one
another, said Lt. Edye Dabney, the jail's public information officer.

The lessons don't help only the program's participants. They carry
over to the other inmates, Dabney said. "We see that other inmates try
to model their behavior on the people in the therapeutic community, so
it's a benefit for us and our staff.