The Allegan County Sheriff's office, Allegan County Community Corrections, and the Kalamazoo Probation Enhancement Program have teamed together to create the state's first Methamphetamine Diversion Program for individuals arrested for methamphetamine addiction crimes.
The Methamphetamine Diversion Program is a multi-discipline, phased program designed to give offenders the skills needed to combat their addiction and become productive community members. The Diversion Program can be an alternative sentence for probation violators. Successful participation in the program could allow additional jail time to be waived.
The goal of the program and specifically, the lessons taught is to change the offender's thought pattern and to help them understand their addiction.
The five phase program includes individual and group counseling, detoxification, drug testing, minimum schooling or employment, restitution to victims, community service and a co-payment for diversion program participation. The Diversion Program has had 28 successful graduates as of August 2010. They all remain employed, and drug free from all substances.
According to the quarterly program report for the Diversion Program:
Participants in the Methamphetamine Diversion Program have discontinued their production, sale and use of Methamphetamine. Intense monitoring and testing suggests that the successful participants have discontinued the use of all mood altering substances.