Cuts will cause a lot of pain for drug treatment programs

URBANA – Major cuts in state funding to local social services will likely result in overburdened hospital emergency rooms, crowded jails and more people going to prison, local service providers contend.

A group of administrators for Prairie Center Health Systems, the Mental Health Center of Champaign County, Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities and the Danville Area United Way said at a news conference Wednesday that $55 million in cuts to the budget of the Department of Human Services will have immediate negative consequences at the local level.

Also on this date

• Champaign street reopened; murder suspect not found
• Unit 7 board OKs price increase for meals, milk
• Ex-Champaign man sentenced in federal case
• Jamar Smith dismissed from UI basketball team
• Recovering addict speaks up for drug court program
• Monticello schools chief gives budget updates
• Two men accused of giving alcohol to two underage girls
• Mahomet-Seymour proposal to reduce property taxes OK'd
• Prosecutor: Smith told police he drank three beers
• Obituaries

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