Pubdate: Sun, 03 Aug 2003
Source: Times Leader (PA)
Copyright: 2003 The Times Leader
Contact:  http://www.leader.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/933
Author: Lauren Roth, Times Leader staff writer

WARDEN: LIMITS OF DRUG REHAB INEVITABLE

County Prison

WILKES-BARRE - Last time Nicole LaTorre got drug treatment, it was 24
hours a day for 28 days. It didn't work.

Now that the 23-year-old is locked up at Luzerne County Correctional
Facility on drug-related charges, she's trying treatment again. She
gets about four hours a week.

Why should it work now?

"I feel it in my heart this time. I truly believe. I want this," she
said.

Drug experts say LaTorre's resolve will play a role in her fight to
stay clean, but without intensive treatment she faces long odds
against success.

Warden Gene Fischi said he knows intensive treatment is a more
effective way to wean addicts from drugs, but he says the cost of such
a program make it a "pipe dream" for the county prison.

It would double or triple the cost of housing at least 100 inmates, he
said. "That's too much of a burden on taxpayers," he said, adding that
the prison spends about $60 a day to house and treat each prisoner.

Intensive drug treatment would be eight to 10 hours a day, and is
offered in most Pennsylvania state correctional institutions,
including Dallas, Retreat and Frackville.

While the financial cost is high, drug treatment experts say intensive
treatment reduces the number of drug-addicted inmates who later return
to crime. In a California study, treatment has been shown to save up
to seven times its cost through reduced crime, incarceration and
health costs.

Fischi estimated that inmates convicted of drug-related crimes account
for 75 to 80 percent of the prison population. An example of a
drug-related crime would be a convenience store robbery for drug money.

"I'm a firm believer that intensive drug treatment is probably the
only way to get these people to stop offending and lower our
recidivism," Fischi said, adding that 65 to 70 percent of prisoners
are jailed again after being released.

"It's the only way they'll recover and get out of crime," said
Katherine van Wormer, a University of Northern Iowa professor of
social work and author of two books on criminal justice.

County Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he understands more thorough
drug treatment is needed, and is working with Fischi and Mike Donahue,
director of drug and alcohol programs in Luzerne and Wyoming counties,
to come up with different options.

Urban said his interest in drug treatment increased after an April
debate on the topic among county commissioner candidates. The other
commissioner candidates on the November ballot have also expressed
interest in expanding drug treatment at the prison.

"I've always believed going to jail is for two purposes: punishment
and rehabilitation," Urban said. "Just simply locking people up,
releasing them and them going back to using doesn't solve the problem."

Donahue said he is reviewing existing programs and trying to "improve
the inmates' opportunities toward obtaining recovery," he said.

Currently, the prison offers 12-step programs, which have a religious
component, and SCOOP meetings, in which volunteers help inmates learn
how to "Stay Clean and Out Of Prison." A Wilkes-Barre company provides
inpatient evaluation and 60 hours a week of drug and alcohol
counseling shared among all inmates who need the counseling.

Van Wormer suggested adding a "rational recovery/strengths" program.
In "strengths" counseling, the counselor plays up the strengths of a
prisoner who is resistant to treatment, empowering them to ask for
help when they're ready.

Corrective social work expert Lisa Larson of the University of
Michigan suggested creating a separate wing in the prison, or a
separate facility, for addicted prisoners.

Keith Ferrell, of Ferrell and Associates in Wilkes-Barre, said the
prison previously had a separate halfway house for addicted inmates
and inmates with psychological problems, but it closed about five
years ago due to funding cuts. He hopes the new interest in
rehabilitation will keep other programs from fading away.

Ferrell's group provides drug counseling at the prison and was paid
$76,260 for services this year.

Last year, 495 prisoners were admitted into Ferrell-administered drug
and alcohol programs, receiving 950 hours of treatment split nearly
evenly between group and individual counseling.

Seeking Solutions

While unsure what, if any, new programs will be added at the prison,
the county is discussing different options.

Donahue said he would like to add at least one case manager to help
prison counselors, and is taking steps to secure additional funds for
treatment.

He is helping prepare an application seeking about $100,000 in state
funds to increase pre- and post-trial services. That would include
evaluation and counseling that help judges see the benefits of
treatment for particular offenders.

Also, the county plans next month to bid out its contract for drug
treatment services. Ferrell said he has been providing counseling
services to the prison for nearly 30 years.

LaTorre, of Mountain Top, started drinking beer and smoking marijuana
at age 12, was shooting heroin by 15 and was homeless at 22.

She said she's ready to get clean.

"Deep down I don't want to use," said LaTorre, who was arrested April
1 with her sister when they tried to steal from Wegmans. She was
charged with possession of controlled substances and drug
paraphernalia and jailed. Being imprisoned has kept her cleaner longer
than she'd ever been before, her mother said.

"I believe jail saved me even though I don't like it here," LaTorre
said. She is proud to be part of the STRAIGHT-UP program, which sends
inmates to schools to try to warn young people to stay clean.

When she was a student herself, she heard from a young woman in the
program. It didn't stop her from becoming an addict.

"My heart went out to her, but I didn't feel it because I wasn't going
through it," LaTorre said of the young woman. "I was only dabbling. I
didn't think I was going to be an addict."

She doesn't have to stay an addict, says the prison counseling
services provider. "There's a preconception and misconception that
people there can't be rehabilitated," Ferrell said. When a prisoner
dedicates to treatment, up to 90 percent stay out of prison at least
two years, he said.

For LaTorre, treatment in prison has allowed her to explore her new
religious convictions and see the world through sober eyes. She clings
to the memory of something her mother once told her.

"It's kind of like you're standing on the beach and you can see your
kid drowning, and you can't save her from going under," recalled her
mother, Denise Babel of Mountain Top. "That's how I feel. In jail I
know she's safe."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake