Treatment Facility Comes to Toledo Correctional Institution

TOLEDO, Ohio — If you’re a nonviolent felony offender in Lucas County, Ohio, you may be among the 200 inmates who need to pack their bags and prepare to move from the Lucas County Correctional Treatment Facility. Nope, it’s not an early release program (sorry, fellas) but it could be an opportunity to serve out sentences at the new Toledo Correctional Institution (TCI) in Ohio.

The new institution is part of a community-based, state-funded, treatment program that will house inmates facing substance abuse issues in lieu of sending them to jail. Presently, the move to the minimum-security camp is intended only for male inmates and is slated to begin early April. Female inmates will have to wait an additional 18 months while accommodations are constructed for them at the new facility. 

With its emphasis on treatment over mere incarceration, officials are hoping to reduce inmate recidivism. Programs will include chemical dependency counseling as well as cognitive behavioral therapy over six month incarceration periods.

The Price Is Right for Treatment Facility at Toledo Correctional Institution

Germane to taxpayers is the fact that the new camp requires no remodeling of the existing TCI campus. Last year, it served lower-level offenders who were subsequently transferred out of TCI when it became a Level 4 maximum-security facility, reported the Toledo Blade. As a result, the minimum-security camp was closed and is now being repurposed into the treatment facility. The move into the existing arrangement obviates the need for about 30,000 square feet of construction. New hires will be added to the personnel roster, including 23 counselors and correctional officers.

TCI opened in 2000 and is owned and operated by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. It can house a close to a maximum of 2,600 inmates at a variety of different levels of security. The facility made the news in August 2017 when a representative of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation told 13ABC, a local news affiliate, that a vending machine company employee had been siphoning earnings from vending machines at the facility. Police documents indicated that the theft amounted to $16,192.