DELAWARE — The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office will continue to prioritize addiction treatment for jail inmates with new grant money from the Ohio Attorney General.
Sheriff Jeff Balzer announced Monday at the county commissioners meeting the DCSO received a $500,000 grant from Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson for the Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program.
“Most of the people that are in the jail are there because of their addiction. They commit crimes, they’ve got to pay for those crimes, but addiction plays a role,” Balzer said.
“So our choice is either to lock them up, throw away the key, and they come back out and they do the exact same things over again. Or to try to change that cycle, and that’s what we’re doing.”
What will the grant fund?
The grant will provide funding for two years for a program that provides critical medications, coordinates treatment and recovery services, and facilitates access to care after release.
“So in the jail, our MAT program, we’ve experienced tremendous growth,” Criminal Justice Programs Manager Cassie Neffs said. “In 2024, we served 57 individuals. In 2025, we were able to serve 144 individuals.
“And now during our most recent period from September 2025 to September 2026, we were able to serve 312 people,” she said. “We are now serving five times the number of people that we served in 2024.”
Neffs said the program has clear results for reducing recidivism.
“During our most recent grant period, people participating in the MAT program had a recidivism rate of 9%. That’s compared to our general population of 51% during that time period,” she said.
Neffs also noted individuals leaving the jail are 10 times more likely to overdose in Delaware County.
But through this grant, the DCSO will add a program coordinator who will coordinate post-release plans with medical partners, recovery partners and community-based treatment agencies for individuals leaving the jail.
“The additional position is going to help us manage that growth while strengthening discharge planning and continuity of care,” she said.
Delaware County jail receives national accreditation
In addition to the new grant money, the Delaware County Jail achieved accreditation from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, making it one of fewer than 24 correctional facilities nationwide to achieve the standard.
The National Commission on Correctional Health Care’s mission is to improve the quality of health care in jails, prisons and juvenile facilities, according to its website.
“What they do for this accreditation is they come in and they review our medical and our mental health services,” Balzer said.
Jail Director Nick Karafa said he and his staff began working toward the accreditation in 2019, describing it as the “final” accreditation a jail can receive for correctional healthcare services.
“I think that Delaware County citizens deserve to have a law enforcement agency that meets and exceeds industry best standards,” Balzer said.
The DCSO has Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) accreditation, and the jail also has accreditation by the American Correctional Association.
