Eric Barnes moved to Las Vegas to get a college degree. He also got something else: A raging addiction to methamphetamine that landed him in prison.
Barnes, 30, did manage to graduate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a degree in psychology. And on Tuesday he participated in a graduation of a different kind at Southern Desert Correctional Center.
He and 47 other men were the first group to complete Nevada's first state-run substance abuse program for inmates. The idea is for inmates to address root causes of their criminal behavior -- which, in most cases, is drugs -- and to keep them from re-offending.
"If Nevada wants to lower the crime rate, this is how to do it," Barnes said.
The program, called Offenders Acting in Solidarity to Insure Sobriety (OASIS), is part of Gov. Kenny Guinn's plan to strike a balance between punishment and rehabilitation, Jackie Crawford, director of the state Corrections Department, said.
Other states, such as California and Arizona, have had drug abuse programs for inmates for years, but it has taken Nevada longer to implement a program because of the state's transient population, according to Howard Skolnik, assistant director of prison industries.
Unlike Barnes, who is from Pennsylvania, 84 percent of Nevada's prison inmates are Nevada natives, Skolnik said.
That wasn't always the case. In 1987, 70 percent of Nevada inmates committed their crimes within six weeks of arriving in the state, he said.
"The state didn't want to spend money (on a drug program for inmates) when they're going to be going back to Illinois or California," Skolnik said.
While Guinn supports the program, its annual cost of $120,000 was funded by a federal grant and through money inmates spend at the prison commissary.
Inmates who sign up for the program spend one year in a facility separate from the rest of the prison population.
Their days are spent receiving intensive counseling for drug abuse as well as anger and stress management. They also learn job skills. Over the course of a year the participants complete eight workbooks with exercises designed to help them work through their problems.
Peer counselors -- other inmates who have successfully beaten drug addiction -- are a key part of the program, Dennis Wallace, program director, said. It is cost-effective, and peer counseling has been shown to work.
"Eventually these men will be back on the streets and they can be anybody's neighbor," Wallace said. "We hope they'll learn that drugs aren't what they need to survive."
Fifteen to 20 percent of those who sign up for the program don't complete it, according to clinical director Craig Larson. Mandatory drug counseling may be implemented in the future: 86 percent of those in the state prison system had drug problems when they committed their crimes.
After completing the program, the inmates will rejoin the general prison population while receiving after-care counseling. UNLV is conducting an outcome study that will track the program's success.
Tuesday's graduation ceremony was spirited. It included a skit performed by inmates about the perils of drug abuse and encouraging remarks by prison officials.
"Remember one thing: There are a lot of people over here who have suffered because of your decisions," Crawford said, gesturing toward the 50 or so family members in the room. "Those individuals are depending on you to change."
Ray Perkins, 25, of Las Vegas has spent almost 3 1/2 years behind bars for drug trafficking and is scheduled to be released in November. He has six reasons why he decided to address his marijuana addiction: His five children and his wife -- whom he married recently at the prison.
"I was running with gangs, there were drugs and bullets flying," Perkins said. "It's not the lifestyle I want to live. I want my kids to remember me as a hard-working man."
Perkins, who has a previous conviction for robbery, said the program was a blessing.
"Everything I had been doing wasn't working. I figured I needed to get some help," he said. "I didn't have the tools to do what I was capable of doing, but now I do."
Ronald Price, 31, of Las Vegas began using drugs at age 14 and became addicted to methamphetamine and cocaine. He has been in prison for just over three years after being convicted of robbery and is scheduled to be released next February.
He has two daughters, ages 10 and 11, and was married last month. He said the program gave him a second chance.
"I was stuck between a rock and a hard place," Price said. "When I came to the OASIS program, it made me feel better about myself. It opened my eyes and made me realize I want to change."
archive