Just one day after Ohio's Attorney General Dave Yost announced funding for recovery programs for inmates in Trumbull County, the commissioners are considering allocating millions in opioid settlement money for even more help.

The nearly $1 million each year for three years would go towards hiring counselors and starting addiction programs to get people help to be less dependent on drugs while serving time.

“We need to start educating them and show them that there's a better path to society than what they're on,” Commissioner Tony Bernard said. 

“It's a hard way to break the addiction by being incarcerated but it happens but the people in there still need treatment,” Commissioner Denny Malloy said. “They need to be treated civilly and humanly.”

The money will also help continue to fight addiction after being released by providing housing and transportation to classes to keep them on the path they’ve already started. 

“Statistically it shows the longer they’re in a program the better off…the more success they’ll have to maintain a drug free life,” Trumbull County Sheriff Mike Wilson said.

Not only will those counselors and programs help with drug addiction but they’ll also be trained to help with any mental health issues intimates are having.

“It is very important for Trumbull County that we pay attention to mental illness,” Commissioner Rick Hernandez said. “We can help them and have them placed in areas that will aid them and be able to get them back in order to be able to hold a job and to get back with their families.”

The $1,028,000 per year would be broken down to:

  • $75,000/year: Transportation for People in Recovery 
  • $150,000/year: Jail-Based Treatment 
  • $115,000/year: Trumbull County Jail Behavioral Health Case manager, salaries and benefits 
  • $92,000: Body Scanner for Trumbull County Jail
  • $500,000/year: Workforce Development 
  • $96,000/year: Address the Needs of Criminal-Justice Involved persons

The programs would be alongside similar mental health and drug recovery programs for inmates like the one that will be funded by the $250,000 grant from the Attorney General's office announced on Tuesday.

The commissioners have nearly $3 million in the opioid settlement fund account now but said additional money will be coming in over the next 17 years.

The county commissioners could vote whether to allocate the money at their next regular meeting on Wednesday, April 30.