FEDERAL FUNDING RUNS OUT ON COUNTY INMATE PROGRAM

A drug treatment program at the Lane County Jail for the county's most
hard-core criminal addicts will end this month when a federal grant
that funded the program for three years runs out.

"There's going to be a lot of people out there who need the help and
can't get it," said Tony Villa, one of 58 inmates who completed the
Intensive Treatment Program. "It helped turn my life around. For that,
I'll always be grateful."

In three years, the program enrolled 119 inmates with an annual grant
of $279,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice. The grant covers the
program through September.

It was the only program in the county that served jail inmates with
the kind of criminal histories that make them unlikely to succeed in
treatment outside of jail, said Richard Sherman, mental health
director at the jail.

Tony Villa graduated from an intensive treatment program at the Lane
County Jail, the only program serving incarcerated criminal addicts in
the county.

Photo: CHRIS PIETSCH " The Register-Guard
"
This program was designed for that group of people who are high-risk for
committing new crimes. They are our highest-risk population," Sherman said.

But the county lacks resources to continue the program on its own,
Lane County Commissioner Bobby Green said.

"There is no general fund backup for that," he said. "The value of it
is tremendous. It's part of the system of care. When we lose this
funding, it gives you gaps in services. It's a high priority."

Although the county sheriff's budget can't cover the cost, department
managers are studying ITP data to consider ways to reactivate
addiction treatment and incorporate intensive reform measures into
other jail programs, said Capt. John Clague, Corrections Division manager.

The ITP showed criminals the thinking errors that keep them in a cycle
of trouble and held them accountable every day in a six-month
treatment period, he said.

"I think that needs to be introduced more broadly into our criminal
justice system," Clague said. "People who walk through our door are in
the middle of a crisis. They are separated from those things that got
them here. We have an opportunity to help people restructure their
life at a time when they are most receptive. The early research seemed
to indicate it was effective in reducing criminal behavior in these
people."

An evaluation prepared for the Justice Department by the Lane Council
of Governments looked at arrest records for inmates one year before
and one year after treatment in the jail program.

ITP graduates averaged eight arrests for the year before entering
treatment. In the year after treatment, their average fell to 2.3
arrests, according to the evaluation report.

Factoring the cost of a jail bed and the average number of days in
jail saved as a result of treatment, each program graduate saved
taxpayers an average of $4,313 after treatment, according to the report.

But the report noted that sufficient time hasn't passed to allow a
full evaluation of long-term impacts.

"A huge number of people are here because of drug and alcohol
problems," Sherman said. "If we simply release them again, we can only
expect they will continue to behave in the same manner as what got
them in trouble."

For example, inmates who went through the program averaged more than
51 arrests before treatment and were booked into jail more than 18
times for average terms totaling more than 585 days behind bars,
according to program data.

Villa, 44, said the ITP made him face up to what he had become, what
he had lost and what he still had to lose if he kept using
methamphetamine as he had for eight years before his latest arrest -
which followed a high-speed chase that brought him an 18-month jail
sentence for violating probation for drunken driving.

It was the latest in a string of arrests for Villa, but he said he
actually felt glad to end up in jail so he could rest. His drug runs
were keeping him awake for all but about two days a month, he said.

"I knew I had a major problem. I could not get off dope," he said. "It
was killing me, literally."

Usually a solid 150-pounds, Villa weighed less than 100 pounds when he
was arrested.

"I was so far into dope, I couldn't think straight. All I was doing
was thinking about getting dope for the day," he recalls.

In the 22-bed ITP, he and his 10-member therapy group focused on their
programs, encouraged one another and enforced their group rules. Being
separate from the jail's other inmates was critical, he said.

"Most of those inmates have no desire to stop using. All they talk
about is getting out and doing the next hit," Villa said. "The ITP
took me away long enough to do what I had to do."

But the program was a painful experience, he said. It forced him to
really see himself - how he emotionally abandoned his three children,
wrecked his marriage, trashed his health, lost job after job, and
deteriorated into someone Eugene patrol officers knew on sight.

"What I put my children through - that's one of the things I really
have to deal with now," he said. "In the end, I wasn't interacting
with them at all. I feel like I abandoned them. In my heart, that's
how I feel. It's a hard thing to deal with."

Now living in a halfway house in Eugene, Villa is healthy, back up to
150 pounds and working at a local restaurant.

He has five years of probation ahead of him.

Villa said he's rebuilding his family relationships and resolving to
remain sober.

But he knows it's a day-to-day challenge and he's afraid of what might
happen if he fails and returns to drugs.

"I'm scared," he said. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't."