WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio — Inmates at the Fayette County Jail are working through a new 90-day addiction recovery program grounded in a nationally recognized treatment model, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office said.
The program, called S.T.A.N.D. (Skills, Tools, and New Directives), was built by Sheriff Vernon Stanforth and his staff and is based on the Matrix Model, a research-validated framework for substance use treatment, according to the sheriff’s office.
Counselors from Pickaway Area Recovery Services lead separate men’s and women’s groups inside the jail, teaching participants coping strategies, how to identify triggers, budgeting skills and how addiction affects the brain and body, the sheriff’s office said.
“They start to understand that it isn’t something broken within them, but something that has an explanation, and there are people who want to help them,” one of the program’s facilitators said, according to the sheriff’s office.
Stanforth was first elected Fayette County sheriff in 1996 and was sworn in for his eighth term in January 2025, beginning his 29th year in law enforcement, according to county records. He previously worked as a patrolman with the Washington C.H. Police Department and has served on the National Sheriffs’ Association’s board of directors, in addition to leadership roles with the Buckeye State Sheriffs Association.
Pickaway Area Recovery Services, the nonprofit providing the jail counseling, has served people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction since 1978. The Circleville-based agency serves Pickaway, Fayette, Fairfield and Muskingum counties and offers outpatient, intensive outpatient and residential treatment, according to the organization.
The Matrix Model is a structured, multi-element approach to substance use treatment that has been adapted for use in jails and other correctional settings nationwide, with added emphasis on reentry planning and the behavioral challenges that can accompany incarceration.
The Fayette County Jail operates out of the sheriff’s office complex on Robinson Road SE in Washington Court House. The sheriff’s office highlighted the S.T.A.N.D. program in the July 2026 edition of its I.G.N.I.T.E. newsletter, which spotlights jail-based programming.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
