Jail officials say the success rate of a new inpatient drug treatment program at the Carroll County Detention Center is encouraging ? even if almost half of the inmates return to jail.
“Thirty-eight out of the 40 [participants] completed the 28-day inpatient treatment, and our goal was 30,” said Lt. Veronica Green, the jail?s drug treatment liaison.
The 16 who subsequently returned to the jail reflects the difficulty people have in transitioning from being a drug addict to a working and productive resident, she said.
The county- and state-funded programrequires that participating nonviolent inmates pay to live in a halfway house and find employment after completing the program at Right Turn of Maryland Inc., a treatment center in Owings Mills, according to the county grants office in the Department of Management and Budget.
The Carroll County commissioners are expected to approve the second-year funding of the program?s three-year grant today.
“The biggest barrier for those who have suffered from addictions is that they don?t have a good work history, and they struggle to pay for the halfway houses themselves,” Green said.
Many recovering inmates can?t find and maintain jobs because their driver?s licenses were revoked as part of their punishments for driving under the influence and other infractions. And still others tested positive again during the required urine analysis.
But these challenges and setbacks are a part of any long-term treatment program.
The program, which takes 40 inmates out of a facility that houses between 260 and 280, also can relieve the security risks associated with an overcrowded jail, where extra bunks have been set up in common rooms.
“This grant helps with [overcrowding],” Warden George Hardinger said. “But more importantly, it helps people lead crime-free lives and to stay out of jail.”
