tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post8399666432464902523..comments2024-03-25T20:06:39.794-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: Shortage of aftercare beds threatens to continue TDCJ's drug treatment bottlenecksGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-56094941973947188662016-05-04T08:04:02.764-05:002016-05-04T08:04:02.764-05:00I have been searching for any kind of literature s...I have been searching for any kind of literature saying that you would have to pay for your continuum of aftercare groups. I have found NOTHING. There are some aftercare vendors that are charging $25 per group. 3 groups a week plus your one on one with your counselor that's totaling out to $325/mo. How are they expecting you to get back on your feet taking off work to attend these groups and pay all these fees? I feel like they aren't supposed to be charging you. If anyone could please send me a link of some literature that says you may be charged for continuum of aftercare it would be much appreciated! Bbaek13@gmail.comBlakers903https://www.blogger.com/profile/12351002571618149297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-2527209703373827792008-11-15T00:48:00.000-06:002008-11-15T00:48:00.000-06:00Aftercare programsAftercare programs are useful fo...Aftercare programs<BR/><BR/>Aftercare programs are useful for complete cocaine recovery. <A HREF="http://www.edrugrehabs.com/" REL="nofollow">Aftercare programs </A>are very beneficial because it offers the client full recovery from cocaine addiction forever. They provide healthy, fresh and light diet in their recovery program to their patients.<BR/><BR/>http://www.edrugrehabs.com/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-88099851509366834592008-07-09T19:27:00.000-05:002008-07-09T19:27:00.000-05:00There has been a shortage of LCDCs and other treat...There has been a shortage of LCDCs and other treatment professionals in Texas for quite a few years. TDCJ and TYC have long had problems filling vacancies in the programs existing prior to this initiative. The pay has been awful given the level of expertise it takes to deal with this population. The number of LCDCs has gone down steadily for a number of years. This is but another case of the legislature's failure to look at the larger picture - available resources (LCDCs and QCCs). If they had looked at the number of available professionals in the state, they would have known that it would be near impossible to implement these programs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-92024344195385883812008-07-09T12:58:00.000-05:002008-07-09T12:58:00.000-05:00I received my degree in Substance Abuse counseling...I received my degree in Substance Abuse counseling (a 2 year associates degree). The state requires an additional 2 years of internship, or 4000 hrs, for LCDC licensure. That's a four year investment. I know some LCDC's that are making $8.00 an hour. Many quit the profession for that reason. <BR/>Personally, I wish that I have never gone down that road. There's a reason LCDC's are as rare as hens teeth. They can't hang.<BR/>Rehabilitation and recovery for addiction is simply not our states priority list. Keeping our prison's at max capacity produces big money for the state... that why nothing changes.And..That's the bottom line.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-25473254244284641712008-07-09T00:40:00.000-05:002008-07-09T00:40:00.000-05:00We have a friend with a well documented drug probl...We have a friend with a well documented drug problem, who has been to prison twice in the past 5 years but who never received ANY counselling or treatment at all while there. He is now living on the streets in Waco waiting for a bed in a 90-day treatment centre. <BR/><BR/>Put the staff you have straight into the TDCJ units to work with the people who want to get and stay clean, and then you wont have to worry about opening new treatment facilities.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-74953111940181093622008-07-09T00:12:00.000-05:002008-07-09T00:12:00.000-05:00to 9:06and staffing with good people is only going...to 9:06<BR/><BR/>and staffing with good people is only going to get worse. When the state decided to make LCDCs semi-professional and require some college (2 yrs), it was great. But they turned around and created a new license thru CJ that requires no college but will be enough to "counsel" people in TTCs and SAFP.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-3569747368198744662008-07-08T21:06:00.000-05:002008-07-08T21:06:00.000-05:00The SAFPF's were initially linked to the CSCD's ac...The SAFPF's were initially linked to the CSCD's across the state which provided offender (clients) for the program beds. Originally, the state ran two of the facilities and the vendors got the rest. Oddly enough, the State run facilities had better track records than most of the vendor run facilities. What was missing was the proposed aftercare where the "graduates" of the program would become part of the leadership in the community for others who had completed the program and wanted to follow through on their treatment and sobriety with like minded "graduates". Since that never materialized, most of the aftercare became AA and NA programs. While the SAFPF model incorporated many of the 12 step concepts, it also encouraged a strong sense of community among the "clients". When that same type of community was not in the freeworld upon their dischrged, the "aftercare" component of the program went away. The effect was recidivism for many who could not make it on their own. The aftercare component becomes critical as the programs are shortened in length so that more offenders are run through them. The clients from the CSCD's also tended to be more compliant than the parolees, because they could end up facing the judge again if they failed to participate in the program. Taking someone back to see the judge in the fourth month was often just the stimulation they needed to get serious or get revoked. Also, even in the 90's, recruitment of licensed chemical dependency counselors was very difficult, especially in rural areas of Texas. Over the years, the supply of those counselors has lessened dramatically. Staffing all the proposed treatment beds with licensed and experienced staff is almost impossible because it takes a special kind of CD counselor to work within a Therapeutic Community model. Many came and went, because the community model was so unusual.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-285264635619704652008-07-08T20:33:00.000-05:002008-07-08T20:33:00.000-05:00My spouse has worked in every phase of this progra...My spouse has worked in every phase of this program almost since its inception. Richard's vision of it was great, but the gutting of it under Bush cut its effectiveness; however, it is still more effective than no treatment at all.<BR/>TTC beds are short because the state pays $30/day for housing, feeding, transporting (to jobs), job search, and counseling each inmate. You cant even get a cheap hotel room for that, much less food and treatment, plus meet the regulations set forth by several agencies.<BR/>Right now at the SAFP they are going to start releasing inmates directly home, bypassing the TTCs because there are no beds, and there is starting to be a big backlog at the facilities.<BR/>But, you know, can't raise taxes, except to lock 'em up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-27054843706564389152008-07-08T18:30:00.000-05:002008-07-08T18:30:00.000-05:00the whole program is a joke. ask any offender who ...the whole program is a joke. ask any offender who went to "aftercare"..more warehousing <BR/>with frequently unreachable expectations. they do it to get our and get on with life, they do it because the state says so. ask them, they'll tell you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-16528379277951083452008-07-08T16:18:00.000-05:002008-07-08T16:18:00.000-05:00"even those supposedly progressive on criminal jus..."even those supposedly progressive on criminal justice in Texas advocate for prison expansion"<BR/><BR/>There's some truth to that, but also a sense in which it's unfair. In particular Texas had gutted its treatment programs and the parole board was refusing to let out drug and DWI offenders who'd not received treatment, making the prisons more crowded, because of long waiting lists to get into the programs. Expanding treatment beds actually lets those offenders get out much more quickly, or will when they're online.<BR/><BR/>Last session Texas faced projections it would need 17,000 new prison beds in five years. Instead, they added a much smaller number of mostly treatment and diversion beds that mitigated the entire need for more "hard" beds.<BR/><BR/>It's not a perfect solution, but given what they had to work with (and the fact that the Lt. Governor wanted to build more medium security units) IMO it was a positive and workable compromise.<BR/><BR/>All that said, given that the new treatment beds aren't all there yet, what's really kept the prison population down are changes in probation practices that reduced revocations in all the big counties except Bexar. Policy changes in the field impact the problem far more than new construction ever could.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-53430097977738611252008-07-08T15:49:00.000-05:002008-07-08T15:49:00.000-05:00it is so ridiculous how even those supposedly prog...it is so ridiculous how even those supposedly progressive on criminal justice in Texas advocate for prison expansionAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-70465056705996696232008-07-08T13:25:00.000-05:002008-07-08T13:25:00.000-05:00When the lege appropriated this money, I predicted...When the lege appropriated this money, I predicted they would not be able to give it away. There has always been a shortage of TTC facilities since they were conceived, along with the SAFPF program. They can't hire staff, people don't want to jack with TDCJ's BS, and the programs that the clients come out of don't work. The concept is flawed. In the early 90's, Ann Richards got money appropriated for 12,500 SAFPF beds. First rattle out of the box, when Bush was elected, they trimmed that to 10,000, with the rest going for regular prison. Then they proceeded to cut the treatment beds over the years until they were down to almost none. Then along came the 07 lege and decided to put programs back in. But that means you have to build new facilities, or turn the regular prisons back into SAFPF or IPTC beds. Then you don't have enough regular prison beds to satisfy the "tuff on crime" conservatives. In my neck of the woods, even before the "expansion", nobody was spending 3 months in the TTC programs, due to lack of beds. The 40 something percent of the new beds that TDCJ is claiming "on line" are not staffed either, I'd be willing to bet. Does it strike anybody as odd that NOBODY wanted the money for the TTC's? It doesn't me. I wouldn't do it for all the tea in China. Chemical dependency is a brain disease which should fall under the category of public health, like diabetes and cancer. Criminal Justice, last time I checked, was not being asked to do anything about the cancer and diabetes problem, something about not being qualified.Donhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16902834245861000386noreply@blogger.com