Alabama plans to begin offering mental health and substance abuse treatment programs for parolees at a renovated former private prison in Perry County before the end of the year.

The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles is entering a $5.2 million, two-year contract with GEO Reentry Services to staff the Perry County Reentry Education Program, or PREP. The paroles bureau bought the 700-bed prison on U.S. 80 in Uniontown from GEO Group earlier this year for $15 million and is adding classrooms and treatment areas with an additional $4 million the Legislature appropriated for renovations.

Bureau Director Cam Ward said he expects that by the end of November about a dozen or so clients will become the first admitted to PREP for rehabilitation programs of about 90 days. Ward said he believes that could be the beginning of a major expansion of the state’s efforts to rehabilitate former inmates and help them avoid going back to prison, an essential goal in fixing the crisis in Alabama’s prison system. Ward said he expects PREP to eventually house up to about 200 clients.

Ingram State Technical College, which provides job training and adult education for the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, is building an educational facility at the Perry County center. Ward said clients will have a chance to address the three major components of a successful reentry to society.

“If you get the mental health issue resolved, if you get the issue resolved with substance abuse, and then you get them a skilled, paying job, the recidivism rate drops dramatically,” Ward said.

The Bureau of Pardons and Paroles already offers mental health and substance abuse treatment programs at 11 day reporting centers across the state through a contract with AltaPointe. But PREP will be different because it will be a residential program.

Alabama lawmakers included funding to buy the former prison in Perry County as part of their $1.3 billion plan to build two 4,000-bed men’s prisons, approved during a special session last year. State officials had talked about buying the Perry County facility off and on for about a decade.

LCS Corrections Services built the prison in 2006. It has provided services for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Alabama Department of Corrections. GEO bought the prison from LCS in 2015 and deactivated it.

Ward has high expectations for PREP.

“If we’re as successful as I think we’re going to be, my biggest concern is that judges and everybody is going to want to put somebody in there,” Ward said. “And it’s just not designed for everybody. It’s designed for high-risk people that may have a high risk of an underlying issue such as a mental illness or substance abuse problem.”

If the demand and results obtained by PREP meet Ward’s expectations, he thinks there is potential for building on the concept elsewhere in the state.

“I really think if we do this the way I think we will, I think we’re going to be very happy with it,” Ward said. “I think it’s going to be a model to expand it throughout the state.”