For Immediate Release - Nashville, TN

Louise Chickering
CCA Marketing and Communications
615-263-3106

Donovan Kuehn
800-548-0497
NAADAC Director of Outreach and Marketing

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest provider of corrections management services to the government, has been approved for organizational membership with NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals. NAADAC is the leading professional membership organization for counselors, educators and other health professionals who specialize in addiction prevention, intervention and treatment. Through its membership with NAADAC, CCA will gain accreditation for counselor licensing capabilities, additional curriculum support and expert guidance, and access to the most up-to-date, evidence-based materials.

NAADAC is the largest credentialing organization in the field. CCA submitted extensive supplementary program proposals including sample lesson plans, curricula, and evaluation tools for the specific and rigorous approval process to earn certification as a Continuing Education Training Provider through NAADAC. CCA is the first and only correctional company to apply for and receive NAADAC's Education Provider status. CCA counselors will be able to expand their careers and raise their level of professionalism through in-house additional education, clinical training, nationally-recognized credentials, and certification programs which meet or exceed NAADAC standards.

Piloting these developments is Dr. Don Murray, CCA's Director of Addictions Treatment and Behavior Management Programs. Murray brings over 22 years of experience working as a psychologist and drug abuse program coordinator in several institutional and prison environments including the Federal Bureau of Prisons, where he spearheaded the development and implementation of the ACA "best practices" award-winning, agency-wide Residential Drug Abuse Program. "This partnership involves our mutual commitment to seeing more done in the criminal justice arena to certify staff and offer high quality clinical services in prisons and jails," says Dr. Murray. "Also, we believe NAADAC can be very helpful to us in recruiting new counseling staff to work in our facilities as we have vacancies and several new programs in development."

Along with NAADAC and an external advisory board of industry leaders, Murray is successfully leading CCA in the ongoing quest to provide the most effective inmate substance abuse and behavioral programs. The agenda will afford treatment staff more opportunities to fulfill requirements if they are seeking licensure or needing annual CEUs for maintaining certification. "NAADAC offers several levels of training, credentialing and development opportunities for our staff through CCA's organizational membership which they would not otherwise have available," says Murray. "It is a wonderful opportunity for anyone looking to make a career in the field or to grow professionally."

Dr. Murray also explains the critically important benefit of training and staff certification in dealing with diverse inmate populations our customers ask the corporation to manage. "Continuing education provided to our staff with leading edge treatment technologies makes us a more attractive partner to our customer agencies. The use of certified staff who receive the highest caliber of training leads to increased customer confidence in our ability to meet our goal of providing only the highest caliber of specialized service delivery," says Murray.

This partnership also benefits the inmates in CCA's care. More than half of the offender population enter the facilities and later recidivate because of crimes related to addiction problems. CCA hopes to reduce these rates, helping inmates out of the "downward spiral" of addiction and into a positive, productive lifestyle. A recent study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons indicated that male and female offenders who completed a residential substance abuse treatment program were 16% and 18%, respectively, less likely than their non-participating counterparts to return to prison during their first three years after release. NAADAC's materials and training will provide additional, cost-effective support to the 22 residential addictions treatment programs available at CCA facilities.

NAADAC Acting Executive Director, Cynthia Moreno Tuohy, has also expressed her excitement on behalf of her organization, anticipating the broad benefits of the affiliation. "In partnering with Corrections Corporation of America, NAADAC is committed to expanding high quality staff training and certification. The tools provided by certification and education ultimately allow us to create healthier clients and communities," Tuohy says.

Program provisions are in the early start-up phases, and will take a few months to become operational. CCA will begin to offer NAADAC approved CEUs for staff to enhance their addictions treatment counseling proficiency as early as June of 2005.

For more information on addictions treatment and behavioral programs, or to tour a CCA facility, call Dr. Don Murray at (800) 624-2931, ext. 3112.

CCA is the nation's largest owner and operator of privatized correctional and detention facilities and one of the largest prison operators in the United States, behind only the federal government and four states. The company operates more than 60 correctional facilities, including 39 company-owned facilities, with a total design capacity of approximately 70,000 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia. For further information about CCA, please visit www.correctionscorp.com.