23 Arrested At Westmoreland Co. Probation Center

GREENSBURG (KDKA) -- In theory it's a worthy endeavor.

The Westmoreland County Probation Center provides life training, counseling and education for drug offenders.

It's designed to get them off drugs and keep them out of jail. For some clients, it's a success story.

"I think it's a great educational place," Douglas Cindric said. "I think it helps a lot of addicts out and I'm really proud to be here."

But the program itself is now on probation after it was learned that clients were selling drugs in the parking lot, using drugs and faking urine tests. It wasn't hard to find someone who witnessed all of it.

"There's people coming in with drugs and everything, asking me if I want drugs and people asking me if I would give them my urine," Korey Clever, a drug probation client, said.

When the illegal activity was uncovered, they shut the place down on Monday and searched all the clients. Twenty-three were found with drugs or drug paraphernalia and they were sent to jail.

Westmoreland County's probation director, Bruno Mediate, is out of town at a conference and unable to talk on camera.

On the phone he acknowledged there were problems. He said he cracked down as soon as he learned about the problems and he says he's working on new procedures to make sure those problems don't happen again.

Clients who spoke to KDKA-TV say they welcome the crackdown and say the programs a lot easier with the bad apples removed.

"There's a lot of people here trying to do the right thing, trying to better themselves," Andrew Herman said. "Then there's other people who are trying to take advantage of it."

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