Drug program gets an official kick-off

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon officially threw open the doors to a Day Reporting Center on Thursday, kicking off the county's campaign to treat certain substance abusers instead of sending them to jail.

The new center — a clearinghouse for treatment and supervision — is the latest "arrow in a quiver of resources that target a difficult population," Corroon said.

"Pursuing alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders makes sense, it provides a community good tax relief and it's the right thing to do."

The reporting center, at 145 East and 1300 South, has already been operating for several months, after the County Council granted a $1 million budget request for the project. The center is already treating 45 offenders who have been taken out of the county jail and placed on a regimen of treatment, group therapy, life-skills classes and job development.

Eventually, the county's Division of Criminal Services wants to boost the number of offenders at the center up to 250. Each of those men and women must be convicted of a misdemeanor and be approved by both the judge and the division to be eligible for the alternatives-to-incarceration program.

"When you rotate through the jail, there isn't a rehab concept," said Jean Nielsen, director of the county Department of Human Services. "We're hoping here we can really help them stop that rotation."

Brent Leake, a case manager at the Day Reporting Center, already has 16 clients who are now checking in daily at the center rather than staying in jail. One of those clients has broken his agreement, Leake said, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

But for the most part, Leake said, the offenders want to treat their drug or alcohol abuse problems and are eager to learn how to hold down a job and stay out of jail.

"For most of them it's a free ticket out the door," he said. "They're getting their lives back on the right road."

The Day Reporting Center is just one component of the County Offender Reform Act, which will also include increased substance abuse programs in the community, more housing for supervised offenders and a program to take mentally ill offenders out of the jails.

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