A large state grant will fund the next year of a collaboration between the Vilas County Sheriff's Department and Social Services, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and UW Madison Tribal Extension.
Vilas County Jail Administrator Bill Weiss says the $130,000 grant is designed to break the cycle of associated with drug dependency among jail inmates. The inmates apply to get into the recovery program..
"...There's a process they go through to be in a recovery pod. We have a 14-bed male addiction recovery pod and an 8-bed female addiction recovery pod. There's many core classes that they attend...."
Services provided in the Jail Recovery Program include full health, mental health and AODA history diagnoses. Weiss says the program wants to get those who desire help to get treatment...
"...To get inmates that are really interested in recovery, to get them working together and get them separated from the rest of the inmates that aren't interested in recovery so they can work toward a common goal of recovering from addiction and alcoholism..."
Weiss says they will also be partnering with several tribal entities, including a Community-Based Residential Facility that is licensed by the state of Wisconsin and owned and operated by the Lac du Flambeau Tribe. Weiss says the program began less formally a year ago using local funds.
He says many facilitators over the past year donated their time to get the program going and will now be compensated for what they do.
