The Hocking County Correctional Facility is currently being repurposed to serve as a women’s only jail and drug treatment center.
The project has received support from numerous local organizations, including Ohio University, Hocking College and Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail. Organizing the contributions for OU is Assistant Clinical Professor Rick Hodges.
“Ohio personnel coordinate the project and help to advocate for policy and funding support,” Hodges said. “We have also provided strategic planning services and completed a financial feasibility study.”
Spearheading the entire project is Hocking County Municipal Court Judge Fred Moses. He runs two drug courts in Hocking County and is a strong believer in re-entry for those addicted to drugs.
In 2017, Moses met with the director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, who at the time was Gary Mohr, informing him of his idea to establish a jail and drug treatment center. Moses recognized the need for this during the opioid crisis, which specifically hit Southeastern Ohio at alarmingly high rates.
In 2018, the Hocking County Prison officially shut down. The former tuberculosis treatment hospital was transformed into a prison in the 1980s and has since housed mainly older prisoners with medical issues.
Moses then began organizing a coalition in support of his project, eventually culminating in 37 partners. The state picked Moses’ idea and the project officially began in 2022.
Chief Deputy of Corrections Leif Bickel has been heavily involved in the process. Bickel discussed what the three-story facility will look like after the repurposing is completed.
Both the facility’s second and third floors will have two dorms, each consisting of 47 female inmates. The first floor will serve as a drug treatment center. The floor will have 100 treatment beds, and all residents will be drug treatment court participants.
In a press release published in December 2021, ODRC announced that $12 million in capital funding will go toward the jail's design and construction.
Earlier this year, Hocking County officially bought the jail from the state for $1, a practice common in governmental transactions. Bickel said the facility is aiming to be open within 18 months.
The drug treatment center will aim to help rehabilitate drug offenders into society. Moses said he is often forced to put drug offenders into jail because they are a danger to themselves, and he wants to see a solution that can better help them recover.
“It's a place where people can go when they're incarcerated, get moved down to a lower secure facility, but a place where they're receiving treatment,” Moses said.
Southeastern Ohio has had a lack of beds to house female inmates. Moses believes the facility will remedy this problem and expand support for female offenders.
The facility will aim to support participants by providing job training inside the facility, offering mental health and substance abuse treatment, as well as potentially bringing in Hocking College professors to teach automated jobs.
Moses hopes this project will remind people that often those who suffer from drug abuse need help and a place to rehabilitate.
“We kind of forget that the criminal justice system is supposed to rehabilitate people, not just put them in jail or put them in prison,” Moses said. “So I guess the question is, as a society and as a human being, what do you want to do to help them help each other? How do you want to make it better?”
