Grant award supports prison drug treatment

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Justice has awarded a $324,457 grant to the Maine Department of Public Safety to provide substance abuse treatment to the state’s prison population.

The grant will be used to support a 40-bed intensive therapeutic community program at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham and a residential transitional treatment facility substance abuse program at the Central Maine Pre-Release center in Hallowell.

In announcing the grant, U.S. Rep. John Baldacci pointed out that a 1999 survey by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics found that more than 80 percent of all jail and state prison inmates said they had previously used drugs.