13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Inmates graduate from meth-recovery program

Inmates graduate from meth-recovery program

Sandra Chapman/Eyewitness News

Rockville, April 26, 2006 - Wednesday was an historic day at an Indiana prison in Rockville. The state is now the first nationwide to graduate a class of inmates treated specifically for addiction to methamphetamine.

With boot camp over, it's now up to the inmates to prove the program was a success outside of prison walls.

There were no caps and gowns on this graduation day at the Rockville Women's Correctional Facility. Instead, white T-shirts reminded the 48 graduates who once lived life on the edge of drugs that "Clean Living Is Freedom Forever (CLIFF)."
 
Sobered now by heartache and regret, they get the message: Don't fall off the CLIFF.

CLIFF is the first in prison treatment program for methamphetamine. The highly addictive drug has taken its toll across the state. With increased enforcement, new laws and a history-making program, the state hopes to write a new book on dealing with the problem.

"This stuff is evil and people make money from it and it will come from somewhere.  But we've stomped down hard on its production in Indiana so that fewer men and women are exposed to it in the first place," said Gov. Mitch Daniels. "We have acted as probably no other state in America and attacked it from every angle."

"As my 88-year old momma says, if you always do what you've always done then you get what you've always got," said J. David Donahue, commissioner of Department of Corrections.

For offenders like Lesa Brown, it's a last-chance effort to break the heavy chain. "Life change - I'm 38 years old I've been doing drugs since I was seven. That's all I've known is a life of drugs," she said.

"I have a choice in life. I don't have to live the way I used to," said graduate Ivory Saunders.

"It means freedom forever. It means life with my daughter," said Darsey Neville.

Researchers at Indiana State will track the women and the program's success. Many of those Eyewitness News spoke with Wednesday still have a number of months before their release.