Pubdate: Fri, 08 Apr 2005 Source: Macon Telegraph (GA) Copyright: 2005 The Macon Telegraph Publishing Company Contact: http://www.macontelegraph.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/667 Author: Gray Beverley Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) DRUG TREATMENT CENTER OFFERS HOPE Kwajalein Morgan Couldn't Stay Off Drugs. Her husband left her for doing them. She quit a good job so that she could do more. She just couldn't stop tootin' cocaine and drinking beer. "I wanted to be clean, but I couldn't," said Morgan, 45, of Macon. "It's hard." Feb. 27, 1997, Morgan said, she got busted for holding drugs for someone else. She spent five years in prison and stayed clean for another two and a half years after that. She thought she was strong enough to hang with the same friends and stay clean. But she was wrong. "I got put back because I couldn't keep a clean stream," Morgan said. "I couldn't stay off of drugs. So they kept on working with me and working with me. ... They were fixing to put me back inside." What corrections officials did, however, was enroll Morgan in a pilot "supervision and behavior intervention" program. She told her story Thursday, the day state and local leaders held a grand opening for a "day reporting center" here. There are five Day Reporting Centers in the state. A $2.4 million grant from the state Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and a 25 percent match from the state helped build and staff these centers. In Macon, it's a 7,400-square-foot building with skylights, lime-green walls, at least a dozen computers and "group rooms" to teach educational and job skills, morality, self-esteem and other decision-making tools. Here's why: . Officials say that about 600,000 people will be released from prison nationwide each year, no matter what, and that they'd rather turn those offenders into productive citizens than to continue having an average of about a third of them re-committing crime and returning to prison. . With one in every 15 Georgians under some kind of correctional supervision, officials say, these centers will reduce the need to build prisons. They say it costs about $45 per day to house someone in a state prison and only about $12 a day to rehabilitate them here. An Atlanta-based center alone has saved more than $2.5 million in prison construction costs, according to a news release from the state Department of Corrections and State Board of Pardons and Paroles. Participants in the program, all of whom are considered non-violent and an estimated 90 percent of whom are addicted to drugs or alcohol, are referred by a judge or the parole board. These are people who have not succeeded under conventional supervision and were snatched on their way to prison. Macon center administrator Joe Baden said that 18 people have entered the program since it began last month, and only one has dropped out. It's not easy. Although no one spends the night, participants take part in a strict regimen of drug-testing and class-taking. The program also requires support from friends or relatives. Baden said one of the toughest challenges for participants is getting them to change the way they make decisions, starting with getting them to admit the effects of their wrongdoings. He said some have asked to go back to prison rather than continue with the program, but ultimately they have become connected to the counselors and the others in their group. "They give you an opportunity to express yourself and discuss what you've gone through and the reason for you doing what you did," said 25-year-old Anthony Cheatham of Macon, "instead of just sentencing you and sending you off." Cheatham said he's been clean for two months and is looking forward to making up for all the family holidays and commitments he missed while in prison. Morgan said she's working on rebuilding the trust of family and friends. And, now drug-free, she said she wants to start her own business of stripping and waxing floors. "If you have a problem, you need handle it the right way: Get out and get you a job instead of trying to find the easy way out every time," Morgan said. "I want to get myself back." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom