Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2002 Source: Sampson Independent, The (NC) Copyright: 2002, The Sampson Independent Contact: http://www.clintonnc.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1704 Author: L.E. Brown Jr Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) COUNTY TO URGE STATE TO CONTINUE SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT PROGRAM Jimmy Thornton and Gary Connolly asked for, and got, the Sampson County Board of Commissioners' support of a program that the state has said it might stop funding. Thornton, chairman of the county's Criminal Justice Partnership Advisory Board, and Connolly, director of Duplin-Sampson Mental Health's TASC (Treatment Alternatives to Street Crimes) program, told commissioners the Department of Correction (DOC) is considering as an option stopping funding to the Criminal Justice Partnership Program (CJPP), under which programs like TASC operate. They asked commissioners to endorse the idea of keeping the program funded. Both said the program, begun three years ago, has been successful. And, said Thornton, there is concern that what he is convinced is a successful program, one which he said is more cost-efficient than sending offenders to prison, might be stopped. "I think we in Sampson County have been leaders in areas where CJPP (Criminal Justice Partnership Program) is concerned," said Thornton. Normally, the county has been receiving about $75,000 annually in CJPP funding. These funds have been allocated to an intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment program, TASC, for intermediate criminal offenders. The stated goal of this community-based corrections plan and the CJPP program is to reduce recidivism by offering alcohol and/or drug treatment to offenders instead of incarceration. "I think we have one of the best programs in the state," Connolly said. He called commissioners' attention to a letter he wrote to state Rep. Phillip Baddour urging him to vote against eliminating funding to CJPP. He notes in the letter that the Department of Corrections has been asked by Gov. Mike Easley to cut its budget and that the DOC's budget reduction plan is set up in agency reduction options starting at seven percent and going to 11 percent. Connolly wrote that elimination of $8.6 million in CJPP funding is listed as the eighth item in the seven percent section of the reduction plan and, if adopted, would become effective July 1. Connolly maintained that CJPP not only pays for itself but also saves the DOC millions of dollars every year in prison incarceration fees. In his letter, Connolly wrote, "Last year CJPP saved North Carolina taxpayers $35,226,491.80 for incarceration costs in prison above the cost of the CJPP grant." He added, "Criminal Justice Partnership Programs working in close conjunction with TASC is the most successful method of offender management in the state." He continued, "The bottom line for Sampson County is that if the program goes away there's not going to be anything to replace it. . . . The people we help keep sober are not in the community committing new crimes." - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl