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"Illinois is a national leader in fighting drug use, crime and
helping addicts turn their lives around," Blagojevich said. "We want
to take the lessons we've learned and apply them to one of the
fastest growing and most destructive drug scourges plaguing our
communities: methamphetamine addiction. The Meth Prison and Reentry
Initiative at Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center will focus
on the very specific challenges facing people addicted to meth, so
they can return to their families and communities and lead
productive crime- and drug-free lives." The Department of
Corrections also will join partners from across the state to
celebrate
National Meth Awareness Day on
Thursday at Southwestern
Illinois Correctional Center for a planning and strategy session
where they will continue developing the initiative and exploring
successful new ways of treating meth offenders in the program.
The program at Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center will be
led by CiviGenics, the nation's largest correctional treatment
company, and will be a national model for therapeutic interventions
with this ever-growing segment of the inmate population.
There are many myths about methamphetamine, one of which is that
no effective treatment for meth addicts exists. Another widely
circulated notion is that once the habit is acquired, the prognosis
for methamphetamine users is near to hopeless. While this is
demonstrably false, it is true that methamphetamine poses some
unique treatment challenges, requiring unique solutions.
The Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center methamphetamine
program relies on established protocols common to other cognitive
therapies for stimulant-use disordered adults. But it adapts
processes to the case histories and symptomatology of people whose
methamphetamine addiction has led to a spiraling collapse of social
function. And it incorporates findings from the latest research on
the neurological impairments caused by methamphetamine addiction.
To assure that this initiative emerges as a "best practice" model
for future programs for the meth offender population, the Department
of Corrections and CiviGenics have retained Dr. Richard Rawson of
UCLA and Dr. Kevin Knight of Texas Christian University to lend
expert guidance in the processes of clinician training, quality
assurance and outcomes measurement.
Rawson is the primary developer of the Matrix Model and is one of
the most renowned researchers in the methamphetamine addiction
field. As a professor with the Department of Psychiatry and
Biobehavioral Sciences and as associate director of UCLA's
prestigious Integrated Substance Abuse Program, he oversees a
portfolio of addiction research ranging from brain imaging studies
to clinical trials on pharmacological and psychosocial addiction
treatments.
Knight, as a chief research scientist with the Institute of
Behavioral Research, is recognized as a national leader in the
development of metrics for therapeutic "best practice" in
correctional settings.
The governor's meth prison initiative includes creating two meth
units, one at Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center and one at
the Sheridan Correctional Center in LaSalle County. In fiscal 2007,
the governor will create a 200-bed meth unit at the 667-bed
Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center and make the entire prison
another fully dedicated drug prison and re-entry program in the
model of Sheridan. In fiscal 2008, the governor will expand the
Sheridan Correctional Center from 950 offenders to its full capacity
of 1,300 offenders, with 200 of those spaces to be used for another
meth unit. As with the current Sheridan model, inmates in both
programs will access intensive prison-based drug treatment programs,
vocational training, job preparation and mental health services; and
upon completion of their sentence, their treatment will continue
under a highly supervised transition back to their communities. The
Southwestern program is being supported through $1.9 million in
state funding and $4.78 million federal funding.
"With this initiative, the governor has charged our department
with finding new and more effective ways to reduce repeat crime
among meth offenders in the prison system, and we are making
tremendous progress in meeting this challenge with the first-rate
partners we have brought on board in recent weeks," said Department
of Corrections Director Roger Walker. "This program gives IDOC the
opportunity to continue our efforts, similar to the Sheridan
project, to develop new and innovative ways to address the impact of
drugs on crime and recidivism, especially regarding the meth crisis
that plagues so many communities in central and southern Illinois."
What distinguishes the programs at Sheridan and Southwestern
Illinois Correctional Center from other programs is that they have
an extensive focus on community safety and also include funding for
the most highly supervised and supported re-entry program in state
history. This program includes specially trained parole agents to
monitor participants and has funding for drug treatment, mental
health, housing and job placement services, all designed to reduce
the parolees' risk to their communities and move them toward
crime-free and drug-free citizenship. So far, more than 30 community
providers throughout the state will be helping to provide those
services.
On Nov. 21, the Department of Corrections announced that the
following providers are now officially on board to build the meth
prison and re-entry program: Civigenics, Safer Foundation and
Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, known as TASC.
[to top of second column]
 |
 CiviGenics is partnering with the Illinois Department of
Corrections in developing an intensive, offender-specific treatment
model that targets methamphetamine-abusing offenders at the
Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center. Working with Rawson, the
originator of the only evidence-based model for treatment of
methamphetamine abuse, called the Matrix Model, CiviGenics is
creating a groundbreaking new system to reach meth abusers in the
criminal justice population who sustain significant neurological
damage as a result of their use. The model integrates research from
a variety of disciplines, including neuropsychiatry and educational
models.
CiviGenics will work with community partners identified by the
Department of Corrections in creating a broad-based statewide
initiative that incorporates the "best of the best" research,
practice and service delivery.
CiviGenics was
awarded the prison-based drug treatment contract, which includes the
development of the national model meth unit and re-entry funding.
Additionally, CiviGenics is updating the entire program standards at
Sheridan. CiviGenics is the nation's largest correctional treatment
company, providing in-prison substance abuse programs in 16 states.
The hallmark of the CiviGenics programs is innovation, using
evidence-based practices supported by partnerships with the nation's
foremost researchers. CiviGenics has provided offender
substance-abuse treatment services for the Department of Corrections
since 1996.
"CiviGenics is proud
to be selected as Illinois' partner in pioneering a national model
prison program to combat methamphetamine addiction," said Roy Ross,
chief executive officer of CiviGenics. "We are excited to be part of
the governor's multipronged initiative to combat methamphetamine
through treatment and public safety legislation. Our innovative
methamphetamine treatment program at the Southwestern Illinois
Correctional Center, coupled with Illinois' new statewide parolee
re-entry initiative, represents an extraordinary opportunity to
create real progress in reducing recidivism in Illinois."
Safer Foundation
was awarded the prison- and community-based job preparation and
placement contract for offenders at the prison. Safer is also the
contractor providing the nationally recognized services at Sheridan
Correctional Center, which has resulted in significantly higher job
placement rates for that program. Safer has worked for more than 30
years to reduce recidivism by helping people with criminal records
obtain employment and social services. In January 2004, Safer was
selected as one of three providers of evidenced-based prison
re-entry services to support drug-addicted individuals at the
Sheridan Correctional Center. The facility provides training in the
employment growth sectors where research has shown an increased
demand for laborers both now and into the immediate future. This
training includes computer, warehousing, welding, machining,
carpentry, culinary and barber skills. In addition, Lakeland
Community College will provide a college associate degree program, a
horticulture and turf maintenance program, computer programming,
construction occupations management, custodial maintenance program,
and food safety and sanitation.
"We believe the
continuation and expansion of the work started at Sheridan
Correctional Center will prove to be as beneficial to the clients of
Southwestern as it has been for the residents at Sheridan," said
Diane Williams, president and chief executive officer of Safer
Foundation. "We are grateful and honored to have an opportunity to
support the governor in his efforts to fight meth consumption in
Illinois."
TASC was
awarded the clinical case management contract to oversee the
re-entry of participants in the program. It also currently manages
that portion of the nationally recognized program at Sheridan.
Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities is an independent,
statewide nonprofit agency that helps people obtain drug treatment
or other services in the community. Since its inception in 1976, the
agency has advocated on behalf of clients and improved systems of
care. Its services touch nearly 35,000 clients each year. TASC
provides clinical re-entry case management services for men entering
and leaving the Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center. Clinical
re-entry management services bridge the transition from community to
prison. Services begin upon entry into the facility and continue as
the inmate is released into the community.
"What makes this
program exceptional is its attention to what happens to offenders
after their release," said Melody M. Heaps, president of TASC. "By
engaging community participation and resources throughout, Sheridan
recognizes that real rehabilitation takes root in the communities to
which individuals return. From treatment to housing to employment
opportunities to faith-based support, the program provides access to
services that the formerly incarcerated need to overcome addictions
and restore themselves to full citizenship. Communities, families
and individuals alike benefit from the hope that personal
responsibility and positive change can bring."
To help build the capacity of communities to support the safe
re-entry of parolees from the program, the Southwestern Illinois
Correctional Center Meth Project gives the Department of Corrections
the opportunity to provide funding for three additional advisory
councils, modeled after a successful pilot project established on
the south and west sides of Chicago by the original Sheridan
program. The Community Support and Advisory Council model builds
community-based networks of stakeholders in high-impact communities
with the largest populations of re-entering ex-offenders from
prison. The Department of Corrections is also finalizing the
Community Support and Advisory Council contract for Decatur, in
Macon County, with Jesus Cares Outreach.
[News release from the governor's
office] |
