Drug Treatment Beats Jail

Most people know by this time that Maine has a serious problem of drug and alcohol addiction. A state-sponsored study in 1998 put the annual economic cost at more than $1.2 billion, and it’s gotten worse. The same study showed savings of $4 for every $1 spent on prevention and treatment. But just as the jails are overcrowded with drug-related convicts, existing treatment centers have long waiting lists.

A nonprofit group, the Maine Lighthouse Corp., is getting started with its plan to create a long-term residential treatment center at the former Loring Air Force Base in Aroostook County. An earlier effort to find space in the former Navy base at Cutler failed because of community opposition there. The group hopes to get a response in June to its request for a $4 million federal grant. The application has the support of the entire Maine congressional delegation and also from New Hampshire’s delegation. It soon will begin seeking private donations to fill out an initial budget of $10 million.

The plan calls for creation of a “therapeutic community,” a residential treatment center in which recovering addicts will do most of the work – preparing meals, performing housekeeping tasks, and handling maintenance of the establishment – all under the supervision of medical specialists, social workers and counselors. Treatment is expected to last from 9 to 12 months. An entry facility, probably somewhere in southern Maine, will require an initial month. And plans call for a third facility, a sort of halfway or re-entry center, also in southern Maine. Individuals will spend three to six months there, preparing for independent living by saving money, working for pay, and returning at night to a drug-free and supportive community.

The group’s longer-term plan envisages a $40 million budget, with support coming at $10 million each from federal grants, individual contributions, business and foundation grants, and a combination of state contracts and business support of training programs.

A shorter-term approach to the same problem is being mounted by the Hancock County Deferred Sentencing Project. It seeks to establish a new Hancock county substance abuse treatment program to provide an alternative for drug-addicted offenders. Instead of incarceration, they would undergo strict supervision and intensive out-patient treatment in the community for at least a year. Similar programs have already proved successful in Cumberland, York, Washington, Penobscot, Androscoggin, and Oxford counties, with a 50 percent success rate.

The group seeks to raise $125,000 to support the first year of the program.

With a shortage of treatment options, these projects are sorely needed and worthy of funding.