STATE PINS HOPES ON PRISON METH PROGRAM

Visiting Governors See New Strategy At Work

KOKOMO - The guards dress in dark slacks and burgundy polo shirts, and
the inmates talk of redemption. Their stories of crime and drug abuse
vary slightly, but each says it was meth that led them here, to the
Miami Correctional Facility outside of Kokomo in Miami County.

"I've been in and out of prison my entire life. They were always short
stays, a couple of years, until 12 years ago I met the devil: meth,"
said David Young, an inmate at the medium security facility.

"I'm in this prison on an attempted murder charge. I shot someone
because he didn't have my money, so I could get my meth."

But Young says a new meth treatment program the state established last
spring has given him hope. He called his family last month to let them
know he wouldn't be coming home when he's released. At home, he says,
it would be too easy to return to old habits.

In 2006, Indiana will release about 15,000 inmates, including many
with stories just like Young's.

The problem is, about 5,500 of them will be back behind bars within
three years.

"We have to do a better job of quality control," said J. David
Donahue, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction. Donahue
says he wouldn't want to work for a washing machine factory where four
of every 10 appliances are returned defective.

And Donahue says he told his boss, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, he
doesn't want to run a prison system that maintains the current
recidivism rate of 37.7 percent. Treating drug abuse, especially
methamphetamine addiction, could be the key.

"Whether it's a dope slinger, whether it's the manufacturing arm of
the business -- a meth cook -- or whether it's the consumer of the
product, 80 percent of our inmates, right now, are here because of
abuse," Donahue told officials from 13 states who visited the Miami
Correctional Facility as part of last week's regional meth summit.

A group of about three dozen officials made the 60-mile bus trip north
from Indianapolis. They got a look at the state's first treatment
center solely dedicated to meth, a fiercely addictive, often homemade
drug that has ravaged rural communities much the same way crack
cocaine attacked the urban landscape of the 1980s.

Dubbed, CLIFF, or Clean Living is Freedom Forever, the 200-bed Miami
unit is one of two treatment centers for male inmates Indiana has
established since April.

A 100-bed female treatment center began operating in November at the
Rockville Correctional Facility. The state plans to set up a similar
program for juvenile offenders.

Inmates who are within three years of parole can participate in CLIFF.
The program takes six to nine months to complete, and enrollees can
shave six months off their prison sentence.

The inmates spend several hours a day in group sessions, talking about
how their addictions have affected their own lives as well as those of
family and friends. They also set up support systems that will assist
them upon release.

That includes locating Crystal Meth Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous
support groups they can attend.

Young was one of four CLIFF inmates who spoke to the group of visiting
Midwest officials. The tour concluded with a reception and series of
presentations held in a prison gymnasium turned banquet hall. A
catered spread of pastries, shrimp cocktail, beef brisket and other
appetizers awaited card tables fashioned with white tablecloths and
linen napkins. A spokeswoman for the Department of Correction said the
reception cost $843 and was paid for out of the Miami Correctional
Facility's budget.