Alternative program receives grant

WARREN -- Northeast Ohio Community Alternative Program, which offers courts an alternative to jail for nonviolent offenders, has been awarded a $127,000 grant to treat mentally ill addicts.
Between 25 and 30 people are expected to be assigned to the program during the six-month life of the grant, said Jim Corfman, executive director of NEOCAP. The Warren facility has 120 beds and accepts convicts from a five-county area.
The grant will pay for psychiatric consultations and prescription drugs for participants, Corfman said. Medication for one person can cost as much as several hundred dollars a month, he said.
Unlike at county jails, offenders assigned to NEOCAP are required to pick up the cost of their own health care as a condition of being there, Corfman said. They are also not allowed to receive public assistance, such as Social Security insurance.
"In the past, we would have to reject them for treatment if they didn't have a family or someone to pay for the medications," he said.