The county must address the growing population in its Detention Center, according to the Rosser report, which investigates ways to temper the increasing number of inmates. By 2024, the population is estimated to grow to at least 500 inmates.

Roughly 85 percent of inmates at Carroll County Detention Center are incarcerated for drug or alcohol-related crimes. Carroll has no long-term substance abuse programs, but it needs to develop a thorough continuum of care for addicts within and outside of the jail system, according to the Rosser report.

A new detention center could cost over $80 million to build, but that money may be better spent on substance abuse treatment and prevention programs to reduce the amount of offenders entering or returning to jail.

The first long-term treatment facility in Carroll County, the 24-bed Shoemaker Addictions Rehabilitation Center, is scheduled to open in Sykesville in 2006.