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Now that she's committed to being a reformed meth addict, Chandra Ewell appreciates getting a second chance.
She expects to get that at what's known as a CORE II women's facility at 1228 S. 900 East. It's a two-story, 16-bed facility where women dedicated to dealing with their mental-health or substance-abuse issues can get out of the Salt Lake County Jail and into the treatment they need while trying to blend back into the community.
"This place has saved my life," Ewell said Monday when she and a dozen other residents joined county officials, legislators and facility overseer Gary Larcenaire of Valley Behavioral Health, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. "I was on the verge of killing myself, with meth or some other way."
But now she has hope, thanks largely to the opening of this facility, a counterpart to the CORE (Co-occurring Reentry & Empowerment) residential program for adult male offenders.
"I want to be become a victims' advocate," Ewell said, describing a dysfunctional background that has made her empathetic to the tribulations of others. "I've been a victim pretty much all my life."
Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, said Ewell and the other women who go through this facility — this group as well as others in the future — should know that people do care about them. The Legislature set aside $750,000 for this facility, money matched largely by Salt Lake County, to give these women an opportunity to succeed.
"Sometimes when you struggle you feel alone," he said. "But we believe you can be successful, that you will make a statement that we can show around the state of people who can make it."
"There's a huge body of people standing behind you. These are real dollars, real people investing time and resources in you," Hutchings added, calling the opening of this kind of treatment facility a "landmark moment" that signals "the game has changed. That's why you're not seeing a ribbon cutting for a new jail."
He predicted more advances in reforming the state's criminal-justice system next session as additional research underscores the notion that society should "stop putting a boot on people's throats when they're trying to get up."
Taxpayers also will benefit from that approach, said Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, not only because it's cheaper to treat someone in a community facility than a jail, but also because it positively impacts people's lives.
He encouraged the women moving into the home to work hard and set a good example.
"The corrections system needs correcting. We're doing that. Today, we're talking about you," McAdams said, turning to address the CORE clients, "you and those who follow in your footsteps, people whose lives will be improved by what you do here."