West Virginia Opens Inpatient Treatment in Jail

Last month the Southwestern Regional Jail in West Virginia’s Logan County opened a “twenty-eight bed residential substance abuse treatment (RSAT) unit” for male inmates with a history of substance abuse (Gaita, 2016), the first in the state.

West Virginia’s state facilities had overcrowding problems, forcing some inmates to be sent to regional jails where RSAT was not available. Now the Logan County unit “will provide a badly needed tool to assist inmates with substance abuse addictions prepare for their eventual return to society,” according to Jim Rubenstein, the commissioner of corrections (Gaita, 2016).

Aside from providing inmates with much-needed treatment for substance abuse, the RSAT in Logan County will help the state with overcrowding problems. Executive Director of the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority David Farmer stated, “Being able to begin treatment earlier will also allow them to hasten their eligibility for parole, thus addressing both the needs of inmates and their families and the issue of overcrowding” (Gaita, 2016).

References

Gaita, P. (2016). West Virginia launches first inpatient treatment program in jail. Retrieved from https://www.thefix.com/west-virginia-launches-first-inpatient-treatment-program-jail