The Price Of Punishment Help Drug-Abusing Inmates, Says Official Who’s Been There

Most of Idaho’s prison inmates have serious substance abuse problems, but the state can’t afford much treatment.

“Unfortunately, we are spending the majority of our time dealing with trying to buy beds,” said Idaho Corrections Director Jim Spalding.

Mark Gornik, the state’s chief of offender programs, said: “Idaho is really kind of on the cutting edge in terms of what we offer. Our problem is we just aren’t able to offer enough of it.”

Gornik knows what works. He spent 17 years as a heroin addict and served time in jail before going straight, earning a master’s degree and working in substance abuse and offender treatment for the past 13 years. Now he’s a nationally known expert who helps other states design treatment programs.

Idaho offers some type of treatment to about 40 percent of the offenders who pass through either prison or probation, focusing on those who are closest to release into the community and those who are most likely to benefit.

“You have those people who are probably not going to respond unless you spend huge resources on them,” Gornik said. “We try to lock those people up tight, give those people programs that don’t require a lot of staff time.”

To help stretch Idaho’s few treatment dollars, some of which come from federal grants, Gornik has helped design programs that can be taught by prison guards, volunteers, or even by inmates.

Seven years ago, Idaho had no treatment programs inside prison.

Outside the prisons, Idaho’s only state-funded chemical dependency program is a voluntary eight-week program at State Hospital North at Orofino, which costs $13,828 per person.

Gornik is spearheading an intensive, nine-month residential treatment program at the South Idaho Correctional Institution in Boise. Funded by a federal grant, it will target parole violators who are hard-core, persistent offenders.

“We finally have things that are working,” Gornik said. “To see people that have spent a lifetime in and out of prison finally start doing something productive, paying taxes, not using dope…. It’s very rewarding to see people making it.”

, DataTimes