Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and Oconee Addiction Recovery and Solutions Announces Grant Awards for Drug Rehabilitation and Mental Health Care

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and Oconee Addiction Recovery and Solutions, in partnership with Oconee County Administrator Amanda Brock and Oconee County Council, are announcing today that grants have been awarded to help Oconee County citizens who are suffering from drug addiction and those at the Oconee County Detention Center in regards to mental health care.

The first grant, in the amount of $585,693, is being made available through a U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance grant from the Department of Justice. The three year grant will provide funding for the design and implementation of a 30 day inpatient substance abuse recovery treatment program for those in pre or post incarceration. The program will involve collaboration between law enforcement, multiple community health service providers and scientific partners to improve response and enhance connections to service for people at high risk for overdose and substance abuse.

Treatment services will be provided at the site of the previous Oconee County Detention Center which was remodeled by Christ Central Ministries Oconee. Christ Central Ministries Oconee currently provides a non-residential substance abuse program to Oconee County residents. In the month of September 2020, 460 individuals were served.

The second grant, in the amount of $561,687, has been awarded to the current Oconee County Detention Center for additional mental health services for those who are arrested and booked into the jail as well as those who are currently incarcerated. The grant is being made available through the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance 2020 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. The grant will provide for a mental health clinician to work inside the Oconee County Detention Center while also providing tele-health services for case management and referral services to treatment courts. The clinician will be an employee of the Anderson-Oconee-Pickens Mental Health Center, a facility of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health.

Before the programs are implemented and services are set to begin, there will be a planning period and design phase in both grants to establish a plan in regards to how the services will be offered.

Even though the grants were obtained separately, there is a connection between both grants in regards to those who suffer from substance abuse addiction and mental illness. According to information contained in the grant application to the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program, 45% of incarcerated individuals suffer from substance abuse and a mental health disorder per statistics from the National Institutes of Health in 2010. Stats in the grant application also showed that in 2018, the Bureau of Justice Statistics data indicated that approximately 14% of prisoners and 26% of jail inmates had experienced serious psychiatric distress in the past 30 days and that 37% of prisoners and 44% of jail inmates had been previously diagnosed with a mental health disorder.

“On behalf of everyone involved, I would like to thank Bryan Miller, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Clemson University, for his work in obtaining these grants for the citizens of Oconee County,” says Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw. “Professor Miller’s work in developing a successful submission package was invaluable and we are grateful to him for helping us obtain over $1 million dollars in grant money that we can use to help those who are suffering with drug addiction and mental health issues in Oconee County. It is my hope that those who receive help will be able to live productive lives as well as reducing the inmate population and recidivism that we often see at the Oconee County Detention Center.”