A jail-based treatment center for people convicted of substance use-related crimes is temporarily closed as of July 1 due to staffing challenges, said Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey in a statement.
The facility − run by Talbert House at 1617 Reading Road − provided evidence-based, residential substance use disorder treatment services to incarcerated people in Hamilton County, offering individualized and longer-term treatment in partnership with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.
Without security staffing, the building cannot reopen as a jail-based treatment facility, said Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge William Mallory. That means that the 144 beds located at the center will no longer be used to treat inmates with substance
use disorder, taking away valuable capacity for when the jails experience overcrowding, Mallory said.
"It was a tool that we could use to get those people the treatments that they needed," he said. "This was a viable alternative for us that's been taken away from us, and we weren't really given a heads up on it."
The inmates were moved to the county jail after the center closed. They will continue to receive treatment while at the Justice Center, said Linda Gallagher, vice president of the Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.
McGuffey said the center's roughly 1 to 1 officer to inmate ratio "significantly worsened existing staffing challenges at the Justice Center," making it "no longer sustainable." She cited an increase in mandatory overtime and the need to have officers back at the Justice Center as reasons for the closure.
While the building will not reopen as a jail-based treatment program, the property owner − Talbert House, an accredited and licensed community provider for mental health and substance use programs − is working with the Hamilton County judges, Probation Department and the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board to reassign services, according to a statement from Talbert House.
Future care will involve reentry services, including programming related to employment, housing and ongoing treatment for those with substance use disorder involved in the justice system, the statement said.
"The last thing we need in our community is less access to treatment," Gallagher said. "Substance use and mental health issues nationwide, certainly also in Hamilton County, are significant, and it's important that we try to keep access available for those."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Jail-based substance use treatment center closes, losing 144 jail beds
