Published: February 04, 2009 11:35 am      

Daniels praises CLIFF program

Governor to present national award to prisons

Orientation, education, treatment and re-entry into the community are the keys to the Indiana Department of Correction’s Clean Living Is Freedom Forever program.

The program instituted in Miami Correctional Facility as well as prisons around the state will be praised by Gov. Mitch Daniels Thursday at the Rockville Correctional Facility.

Daniels will present the American Correctional Association’s Exemplary Offender Program Award recognizing the innovation and success of the CLIFF program, which has been implemented at Rockville, Miami and Wabash prison along with the Logansport Juvenile Facility.

The program was developed in 2005 in response to Daniels’ challenge to the prison system to aggressively address the state’s methamphetamine problem.

In 2006, 89 offenders at the Miami prison, north of Kokomo, earned certificates for completing the program, which is a six- to nine-month intensive therapeutic program for offenders with significant impairment as a result of methamphetamine use.

It includes individual and group counseling, relapse prevention, community meetings and life-skills training. Those chosen must have a desire to change their behavior, have a history of good conduct and no history of violence in the past 12 months.

J. David Donahue, commissioner for the Indiana Department of Correction, said of the 188 men, women and juveniles who have completed the CLIFF program, only 1 percent have returned to prison.

Donahue said one of the goals of the program was to reduce the number of people returning to prison. Right now, four of every 10 inmates released are back in prison within three years.

Mike Fletcher may be reached at (765) 454-8565 or via e-mail at mike.fletcher@kokomotribune.com