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."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom