Officials for the Jacksonville-based Wells Center say the facility isn’t far from going out of business.
The Wells Center announced previously this year it was closing its detoxification program due to the continuing budget impasse and budget reductions by the State of Illinois.
Now Bruce Carter, the executive director, tells the Illinois News Network that because of the continued budget stalemate, one Illinois Department of Corrections contract for substance abuse treatment has been ended with the Logan Correctional Center.
Contracts with the Dixon Springs and Du Quoin Impact Incarceration Program have also been cut. The three cuts are worth about a million dollars.
Carter says lack of payment and loss of contracts at the end of September has impacted the Wells Center’s mindset in dealing with the state moving forward, including borrowing to help make payroll.
“So, even though we’ve been very careful about what we will continue to provide, because of delayed payments and cutbacks we’ve had to make, it would not take much for us to go out of business now,” says Carter.
Carter says because of a mix of federal and state dollars, Wells Center is still providing services under one contract with the Logan facility.
He adds Wells Center is still providing services to five different sites with the Department of Juvenile Justice because of continued funding through consent decrees.
Information from the Illinois News Network was used in this story.