 Earlier this afternoon, during a press conference which aired on the Zoom, Governor Andy Beshear took some time to highlight a project that is currently underway in Pike County, which seeks to help inmates, especially those with substance abuse issues, as they rehabilitate and prepare to re-enter society. We caught up with Jailer Brian Morris of the Pike County Detention Center, as well as Tammy Riley of the Pike County Health Department, in order to get some more information on this innovative new program. This is an ARC-funded Inspire Grant. We named the project Rebuild. It stands for Re-establishing and Building Unemployed Inmates Leverage and Development. The focus of the grant is to connect substance use disorder populations with skills or support that's needed for successful entry or re-entry into the workforce. As far as I'm aware, ARC seemed to think it was a very innovative program. They highlighted it today in the ARC and the Governor's press conference, and I feel that's very innovative, where we're taking incarcerated substance use disorder, a demographic that's incarcerated, and we're combining that with public health services, an evidence-based curriculum like life skills, and hands-on technical vocational training with the bed program, so that's very innovative and I think will create some success here in Pike County. The program will produce 150 beds per year, and that's 75 beds per cohort, and those beds will be redistributed back into the community. Again, I think that Brian Morris with the Pike County Detention Center, Ronnie Sammons, the Director of the Waste Care Program, have had an emphasis for quite some time on reducing the return rate of the incarcerated, particularly those suffering from substance use disorder, and trying to provide programs. We know, and what they told me is that the Department of Corrections has shown a 41% return rate for the incarcerated in Kentucky. This was based on 2019 data. If you provide programs, you reduce that return rate to 32% approximately. We think an innovative, really targeted program like Rebuild could even lower that more. So we're really looking forward to seeing the success that we're going to have with this program and how it's going to impact the community. Here at Pikeville Medical Center's Heart and Vascular Institute, we have assembled a comprehensive team of cardiac specialists bringing expertise from all regions of the nation and the world. We have coupled that with cutting edge technology, providing them the best equipment and operating rooms available. The result is comprehensive cardiac care for the people of our region that is second to none. The Heart and Vascular Institute at Pikeville Medical Center. Jeller Brian Morris took time during his comments to summarize the application process as well as share what he feels could be the impact of this program on those inmates who complete it. The inmate will go through West Care, which is a substance abuse program that's inside the Pikein Intention Center, it's a six month program and upon their graduation of this SAT program, they'll be selected. I've always wanted to emphasize the reentry of the inmate. There's a lot of tools and there's a lot of classes and things that they go through while they're incarcerated. But upon their release, they're just kind of shuffled right back into the same place they came from with the same tools of success, which is a much. I've always wanted to focus on the reentry of the inmate and I think this grant gives the three things that they need, which is life skills, education and public health. I think them three things will absolutely give them a better success rate upon reentry. I think any time that you can help a family in need and use individuals that need to change their path of life and you bring them two together, that's a win-win in all situations. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joshua Slum.