LETTERS: GIBSON CENTER EXPLAINS ITS PLANS

To the editor:

As has been reported in your newspaper, the Gibson Recovery Center of Cape Girardeau is in the process of starting a new program under contract with the Missouri Department of Corrections. Under this program, the Gibson Recovery Center would assist individuals in making the transition from a Department of Corrections facility to being a productive citizen. The Gibson center is currently seeking a special-use permit from the city to allow the center to provide this service. Your paper and a number of citizens have expressed some concern over this program. As directors of the center, we believe an objective consideration of the program warrants it support by your paper and the city.

Most of the opposition to the programs appears to stem from a belief that the Gibson center would be turned into a prison posing a threat to the safety of our community. Under the proposed program, the center would not operate as a prison. The clients who would come to the center through this program would not be spending time at the center as an alternative to prison time. Rather, the people selected by the Department of Corrections to come to the center would be those people who have already serve their sentences and have been selected to be paroled. These people would have very little incentive to cause problems, because they would then have their parole revoked and would be returned to prison.

The people would all be from the Southeast Missouri area. Rather than simply being turned loose by the Department of Corrections from prison, the Gibson center would provide education, training and housing for these people for up to 90 days to facilitate their transition to being productive, contributing citizens of the community. The center would provide education and substance-abuse treatment and would assist the clients in attaining full-time employment. The individuals in the program would be monitored 24 hours a day by the center's staff.

The program provided by the Gibson center under the contract would not be significantly different from the present operation of the center.

The overwhelming majority of the Gibson center's present clients are there as a condition of court probation and are under the supervision of the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole. The center has had no problems with these people. There have been no reported incidents with clients admitted to one of the center's programs creating a danger of any kind to the neighborhood or community. In fact, the center's clients have been helpful to the neighborhood and community. In the past, the clients have voluntarily assisted the elderly in raking leaves and have assisted the Salvation Army in putting together Christmas baskets for the needy.

The Gibson center is a not-for-profit business that has operated for 18 years in Cape Girardeau. The center started in 1979 under the name Southeast Missouri Halfway House Inc. It operated out of a facility on Lorimier Street. The objective of the center has been to rehabilitate members of the community who suffer from the disease of alcoholism or other substance abuse. The services are provided to citizens of the community regardless of their ability to pay for these services without discrimination as to race, physical disability, religion, sex, social standing or personal background.

The Gibson center program has demonstrated its treatment programs work. People do get well. While it does take time and a concerted effort by the affected individual, treatment agency, family and community, people do recover from their afflictions at a rate greater than for comparable physical disease. Once recovered, these individuals become productive and outstanding citizens and not a drain on society.

One of the missions of the Gibson center is to make available treatment to as many individuals from the community as the need requires. The center does not exclude individuals because they come from a particular segment of our society. It is consistent with this mission that the center has sought to contract with the Department of Corrections. The center has also sought this program because it would provide funds for the center to continue to operate all of its treatment programs.

If you or any member of the community has any questions or concerns regarding this proposed contract, contact the Gibson Recovery Center.

MILTON GEORGE, President; WILLIAM BIRD SR., Vice President; JOHN LORBERG, Secretary-Treasurer; and ROBERT KNIGHT, MARCIA MULCAHY and DR. C. JOHN RITTER, Board Members

Gibson Recovery Center

Cape Girardeau