LOCKPORT – A Lockport woman is headed for the state prison system’s secure drug treatment facility after pleading guilty Tuesday in Niagara County Court.
Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas said Paula C. McElwain, 39, of LaGrange Street, “has profound mental health issues and substance abuse issues.”
The program at Willard Correctional Facility offers parole after 90 days, but if the inmate washes out of the program, he or she must serve a sentence in a regular cell. In McElwain’s case, that could be between 18 months and four years.
McElwain, a second-time felon who said she failed in a civilian drug rehabilitation program, pleaded guilty to fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance for having sold cocaine in Lockport on Dec. 12, 2011. She is to be sentenced Sept. 26.
Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas said Paula C. McElwain, 39, of LaGrange Street, “has profound mental health issues and substance abuse issues.”
The program at Willard Correctional Facility offers parole after 90 days, but if the inmate washes out of the program, he or she must serve a sentence in a regular cell. In McElwain’s case, that could be between 18 months and four years.
McElwain, a second-time felon who said she failed in a civilian drug rehabilitation program, pleaded guilty to fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance for having sold cocaine in Lockport on Dec. 12, 2011. She is to be sentenced Sept. 26.