STATE SEEKS SOLUTIONS TO METH PROBLEM

As early as next fall, the state Department of Corrections is hoping
to become a big player in the treatment of methamphetamine addiction.

Not everyone is convinced that is a good thing, but department
Director Bill Slaughter sees it as something that needs to be done.

The state is asking private contractors to submit proposals by Jan.
10 to build a lockdown meth treatment center, with 80 beds for men
and 40 for women. Among those preparing a proposal is David
Armstrong, administrator of Alternatives Inc., a prerelease center
in downtown Billings.

He's hoping to house the 40 female meth offenders in a building that
would also house an expanded number of prerelease offenders in
Billings. The state's request for proposals allows contractors to
design separate centers for men and women.

With meth being involved in the crimes of more than half the women in
prison in Montana, and in something like 35 percent of the cases
involving male prisoners, 120 beds seems like a bare minimum,
Slaughter said.

"What we're trying to avoid there is simply piling people up in
prison just because a community program was not available to them,"
he said.

He said the department wants to treat meth addiction in hopes of
getting offenders out of the cycle of committing crimes and going to
prison over and over. Treatment is more expensive than incarceration,
he said, but it will result in a huge savings if people are steered
into law-abiding lives. People sentenced to the meth treatment center
would also go for nine months, much less than some standard prison
sentences.

The 2005 Legislature authorized a 40-bed meth-treatment prison, but
before the plan was put out for proposals, the Department of
Corrections tripled its size, using money allocated for regional
prisons and counties that hold state inmates in county jails while
they await an opening in a state prison.

Mona Sumner, chief operations officer of the Rimrock Foundation, an
addiction-treatment provider in Billings, is critical of the plan. In
general terms, she said, the state would be better off spending money
on treatment programs administered by agencies and contractors with
proven records, not giving the money to contractors whose expertise
is in corrections.

People are treated most effectively if they can be diverted into
treatment before they're sent to prison, she said.

"If we don't do that, we will not incarcerate our way out of our drug
addiction problem," she said. "We're putting our money in the wrong
end of the funnel. It's a no-brainer, except nobody's talking about
it."

Sumner also objected to Corrections' plan to use the "therapeutic
community" model - what she called "the latest, one-size-fits-all
model" - at the meth prison. It involves a round-the-clock regimen
that emphasizes the inmate's responsibility to his treatment family.

That form of treatment can be effective for certain types of people,
particularly those who are extremely anti-social, Sumner said, but
that is a specific diagnosis that does not apply to most meth
addicts. In the case of female addicts it is even less applicable,
she said.

Sumner said the basis for any successful treatment is establishing
trust between counselors and clients. In a prison program, it is
difficult to build trust because the patients will be afraid that
information they divulge will be used against them, she said.

"A punitive setting doesn't promote a therapeutic setting," Sumner
said. "They think that by hiring someone who's a licensed addictions
counselor, that somehow makes a program."

Slaughter said you could talk to addictions counselors all across the
country and you wouldn't hear a consensus on what is the most
effective form or treatment, but the therapeutic community model is
highly regarded. And it has already worked at the state hospital in
Warm Springs, where a program based on that model has been treating
alcoholics since 2000.

Warm Springs Addiction Treatment and Change was set up to treat and
supervise offenders after their fourth and subsequent DUI felonies.
The 140-bed facility offers a six-month program. When it opened,
Slaughter said, the department would have been happy if 50 percent of
the offenders successfully completed the program.

"We're 72 percent successful," he said. "I'm sorry, Mona. We ought to
have a parade."

A new state law will allow judges to sentence people convicted of
their second and subsequent meth-related felonies to the new
treatment prison. Because of the nature of meth addiction, the
program was expanded to nine months, rather than the six months at
Warm Springs.

Slaughter said the therapeutic community model relies on a lot of
peer pressure, forcing inmates to live in a family-like setting and
deal with details of family life. But exactly how the program is run
is open to adjustment, he said, and the department is willing to
consider whatever works. Again, though, he said, the department is
impressed with how well it has worked with DUI offenders.

"It's been very successful in a very tough population," he
said.

Sumner said Rimrock is not submitting a proposal for the meth
treatment prison because it doesn't want to be forced to use the
state's preferred treatment method. She said it was also clear to
her, after speaking with Corrections officials, that their intention
all along was to contract with agencies like Alternatives Inc., with
which it already has a relationship.

"Do you ever talk to someone who you know doesn't want you? That's
what this was," she said. Her biggest concern is that the
Legislature, having spent so much money on treatment through the
Department of Corrections, will think it has done enough, ignoring
the needs of other addiction-treatment programs.

Slaughter said he would still like to work with the Rimrock
Foundation and similar entities. A request for proposals is by its
nature an invitation to talk about various possibilities, he said,
and the state would like to hear Rimrock's ideas.

"The more people that answer our RFP, even if they just want to come
in and discuss how we want to do this, the better," he said.

Help available

If you or somebody you know is looking for help in overcoming an
addiction to methamphetamine, here are some numbers to call:

Indian Health Board of Billings: 259-3920

Journey Recovery: 254-1314

Rimrock Foundation: 248-3175

Montana Chemical Dependency Center, Butte: (406) 496-5400