UCHRA Gets $4 Million Grant For Day Reporting Centers

UCHRA has received a $4 million grant to staff an initiative to reduce the amount of drug offenders serving time.

Executive Director Mark Farley said through the funds, the agency will establish three “day reporting centers” for each judicial district in the region.

“The new part for us is we will be hiring clinical staff,” Farley said. “People that are actually licensed and have degrees and certificates that will allow them to work in this field. Everything up to this time has been more of a support role.”

Farley said instead of incarceration, judges can sentence an individual to one of the locations for rehabilitation. Farley said staff will work with the criminal court system to provide offenders needed skills.

“There is a structured program that they go through,” Farley said. “It is not inpatient treatment, but it is designed to help them work through the issues they have if they need inpatient treatment. It’s designed to get them where they need to be for that amount of time. Then when they come back out, developing the life skills, work ethic and things they are missing because of the drugs in their life.”

The centers will be located in UCHRA offices in Putnam, Smith and Warren County. Farley said they should be established in the next 90 days.

“Now, they only exist in the urban areas,” Farley said. “The closest to us I think is Rutherford County. What we will do is create one in each judicial district that is inside the Upper Cumberland.”

UCHRA applied for the grant earlier this year. According to the state, the center is a one-year three-phase program that will assist moderate to high-risk offenders with a substance use issue.

In order to be eligible for the program, the participant must be under the supervision of TDOC’s Community Supervision, have at least 2 years left on probation supervision, and/or have substance use concern.