OPINION: | Editorials | Letters | CommentaryTuesday, May 19, 2009 |Richmond, VA 52° Feels Like: 52° Partly Cloudy

Success of Richmond addiction treatmentprogram draws attention of Obama nominee

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By DAVID RESSPublished: May 19, 2009President Barack Obama's nominee to be deputy drug czar got a surprise yesterday during his visit tothe Richmond City Jail to take a look at an unusual program for addicts.Inmates in what was one of the jail's toughest cellblocks gave a standing ovation to a stern-facedRichmond Sheriff's Office colonel who is the jail's most demanding disciplinarian.Then, the 120 inmates in the jail's new McCovery addictions-treatment unit -- most of them multipleoffenders with felonies on their records -- gave Col. William Burnett a second round of applause, for good measure.It wasn't what most people expect from inmates, but it was only one of several things that surprised A.Thomas McLellan, a University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist nominated by Obama to be deputydirector of the Office of National Drug Control Policy."I'm the Relapse King," inmate Damien McClean told McLellan. "I know how to stop, but I don'tknow how to stay stopped." Now, McClean said the McCovery program -- run by the Richmond-based McShin Foundation, anonprofit group that seeks to help addicts -- has shown him a way.