Kasich budget plan calls for doubling prison addiction services

Treatment services for drug- and alcohol-addicted prisoners would significantly increase under Gov. John Kasich's proposed $72 billion biennial budget (Source: “Addiction services double under Ohio prison budget,” Bucyrus Telegraph Forum, Feb. 13, 2015).

The governor’s plan calls for a doubling of drug addiction services inside Ohio’s prisons, where an estimated 80 percent of inmates have a history of drug abuse.

The budget plan calls for  Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Gary Mohr  to work with Tracy Plouck, director of Mental Health and Addiction Services, to create a joint plan in which Plouck's department will take over mental health and addiction treatment in the prisons.

"We were never able to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish, which was a continuum of care into the community," said Stuart Hudson, the prisons' managing director of health care and fiscal operations.

The shift, if approved by the Ohio General Assembly, will put 120 current prison employees and $12.5 million from the prison budget into Plouck's department.