PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. — Beating back political opponents who might call it an unpopular decision, Prince William Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart led the conversation to restore a drug rehabilitation inside an area jail.
The DORM program, known at the Prince William County Adult Detention Center in Manassas as the Drug Rehabilitation Module, had its funding restored for the coming fiscal year. To get there, leaders made $635,000 in cuts in other areas of the county’s budget, including a decision to put off the hiring of a deputy county executive, cuts to a public health program, cuts to transportation monies doled out by County Supervisors in their respective magisterial districts, and a $50,000 reduction in funding to the Hylton Performing Arts Center.
“I have become convinced of the value of this program which is essentially drug treatment for inmates at the ADC. We have heard form our judges here in the county who use this as valuable tool to reduce and prevent crime,” said Stewart.
The DORM program was slashed late last month when the Board of Supervisors approved the next year’s budget to fund county government in fiscal year 2014, which begins July first. If the cuts had remained in place, a total of 11 employees at the detention center would have lost their jobs.
Community Services Board spokeswoman Vicky Taylor said last week several inmates who complete the program receive an overall benefit. Those who don’t are more likely to wind up back on the streets.
“Over the last four years, the recidivism rate [for inmates who don’t complete the DORM program] was 55%… the recidivism rate for inmates who complete the DORM program for the same four years…it’s an overall average of 27%,” said Taylor.
The move to restore the DORM program was unanimous, though Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland was absent from the meeting. Stewart, who is running for statewide political office to fill the Lt. Governor seat, attempted to stave off political naysayers.
“I know it’s not a popular political thing to be funding a substance abuse program among convicts, but I do believe that it is a public safety measure, and that, for some of these folks, the only thing they’ve done wrong in their life is to get addicted to drugs. It is because of that addiction to drugs they go back out and commit additional crimes, and this is our opportunity to give them a little bit of help, get them off the addiction, and become law abiding citizens…” said Stewart.
In addition to county funds, Virginia also subsidizes the DORM program to a tune of just over $400,000. The funds from the state were put in jeopardy when Supervisors last month passed a budget that did not include the DORM program.
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