Help for male inmates: Funding request for opioid-addiction program expected

After months of preparation, a gateway has opened to allow groups working to address the community’s opioid epidemic to move forward.

By unanimously approving the application process, Bartholomew County’s Substance Abuse Public Funding Board has put into place ways to fund efforts to tackle addiction-based problems.

One of the first proposals expected to be considered for funding calls for a court-ordered drug treatment program for male offenders — similar to the successful Women Recovering with a Purpose program, Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin said.

The first phase of the women’s program, known as WRAP, is a four- to six-month program of incarceration and treatment to help inmates address issues that led to drug addition, followed by several months of support during a monitored release back into society.

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Since its 2011 inception, WRAP’s ability to significantly reduce recidivism — a relapse into criminal behavior — among addicted female inmates has been nationally recognized.

It’s been six years since these types of services have been available to this degree for addicted, uninsured male jail inmates in the Columbus area.

In 2012, a residential program that served 17 counties, including Bartholomew, was closed in Clark County after funding was eliminated by the Indiana Department of Mental Health.

Funding requests

The county has already been awarded $75,000 in federal funds for the proposed male program through the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute that can be used through April 30, 2019, said Rob Gaskill, residential work release director for Bartholomew County Court Services.

But a second grant request for $190,000 was denied, Gaskill said. Unless the subsequent financial gap can be filled through other sources, the county will lose the $75,000 grant, he said.

If local elected officials feel the needed $190,000 is too much, the amount could be negotiated down, Gaskill said.

While it is always possible that funding might be pulled for all court-ordered, drug-treatment programs, Gaskill said he doesn’t see any indication that will happen in the immediate future.

In fact, funding for residential substance abuse treatment programs through the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance has recently been increased from $14 million to $30 million, he said.

The process

With the application process now in place, Benjamin said she will now move quickly to request local funding for the male program. But the proposal will first have to be evaluated by an recently formed Substance Abuse Advisory and Accountability committee.

That group, which is made up of various local experts, will report its findings to the board, which will then determine whether to recommend the proposal to the city and county councils.

“There is no question that a men’s WRAP group is needed in this community,” said Bartholomew County Council president Mark Gorbett, who served two terms as county sheriff.

Both the city and the county will be asked to provide some degree of support for each proposal submitted for consideration, said Mary Ferdon, executive director of administration and community development for the city of Columbus, who also serves as a facilitator for the board.

If the councils approve funding for a court-ordered drug treatment program for males, four positions would be created: a case manager, two residential staff members and a contracted mental health professional who will serve as program coordinator, Gaskill said.

If existing qualified employees are willing to fill those position, it will take 30 to 60 days to get the new program started, Bartholomew County Court Services Director Brad Barnes said.

But if current employees can’t be found, the program start-up will take longer, Barnes said.

Learning from experience

The new program will avoid a mistake made in the past, when addicted and uninsured inmates seeking addiction treatment in the first six months of the program were required to simultaneously work, attend classes, and pay fees.

“It flopped,” Barnes said. “Quite frankly, it was more than they could handle. Once someone leaves the confines of the treatment program, it greatly increases the odds of (drug) relapse.”

While women are charged $75 to get into the WRAP program, they can’t leave their facilities located on the south side of the Bartholomew County Jail for six months, and aren’t required to pay daily fees, Gaskill said.

But after six months, when WRAP participants are released while being monitored, they are required to pay $10 to $15 a day to remain on the program, Gaskill said.

The five-page application that was approved Wednesday by the Substance Abuse Public Funding Board appears to address earlier concerns expressed by local officials about frivolous and unproven proposals being considered for funding.

The application itself requires any person or group requesting funds to provide specific detailed responses that require extensive knowledge of the subject matter.

Applicants will have to research existing services, provide breakdowns of expenditures, offer fact-based estimates on beneficiaries, and submit several other details usually found in professionally prepared business plans.

A key element of the application is the requirement to provide fact-based evidence that a proposal has generated positive results elsewhere, Ferdon said.

Upon receiving an application that isn’t thoroughly filled out, either the Substance Abuse Public Funding Board or its chairman, Laura DeDomenic, have the authority to turn down requests before it goes through the first stage of committee evaluation, Ferdon said.

With this process, Ferdon said she believes the board will likely consider no more that six funding requests, with some expected to be submitted within a matter of weeks, she said.

Besides the court-ordered drug treatment program for males, Ferdon said a request is expected shortly to fund a central hub. She is referring to a resource center connecting people throughout a Substance Abuse Support System, including service providers and recovery support programs.