WMBFNews.com | Myrtle Beach/Florence, SC | News, Weather, SportsAgreement reached for jail diversion program

Agreement reached for jail diversion program

CONWAY, SC (WMBF) - Officials in Horry County have announced a contract agreement between the J. Reuben Long Detention Center and Life Recovery Solutions, LLC to develop and operate a jail diversion program to help offset inmate overcrowding.

The detention center is entering a major capital expansion project after overcrowding conditions at the current facility and the increasing demand for area incarceration services.  The program, according to Horry County spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier, will assist to abate future detention center capital expenditures and expansion.

The program is funded through a 2008 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Block Grant amounting to $190,000.  The grant will allow for the establishment of the pilot program to assist in diverting minor homeless offenders from jail to treatment and training programs.

Officials hope the program will be up and running by July 1.

Participants, according to Bourcier, will be housed in a minimum security wing at the detention center.  Entry criteria into the program will be determined in part with the Solicitor, the courts, detention center administration and the service provider.

"An underlying factor in a lot of our inmates is substance abuse and anything we can do to assist in providing treatment and training, will help to better themselves and our community when they transition back into society," stated Tom Fox, director of J. Reuben Long Detention Center.

The desired intensive treatment program will be based on a cognitive behavioral model of therapeutic change agent is the community itself, including the detention center and service provider staff and program inmates together as members of a family.

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