Pubdate: Wed, 18 Oct 2000
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2000 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  The People's Forum, P.O. Box 191, Raleigh, N.C. 27602
Fax: (919)829-4872
Website: http://www.news-observer.com/
Author: John Sullivan

REPORT CITES PROBLEMS IN DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAM

An evaluation and referral program for offenders in Durham is found to be 
'severely understaffed.'

DURHAM -- State probation officials said Tuesday that because of 
communication breakdowns and severe understaffing at a drug treatment 
program, probation officers were waiting months to reel in criminals who 
flunked drug tests or failed to show up for court-ordered drug treatment.

The findings came after Robert Guy, who runs the state's probation and 
parole agency, met with the statewide director of Treatment Alternatives to 
Street Crime, the program that evaluates offenders and refers them to 
treatment.

A memo probation officials released summarizing the meeting said that TASC 
in Durham is "severely understaffed" and that since March, the program has 
been "operating with 50 percent of its usual staffing."

That meant there weren't enough people to conduct evaluations, handle 
paperwork or do follow-up. As a result, probation officers stopped issuing 
violations of probation for people who failed to report to TASC but still 
were testing positive for drug use, the memo says.

"When they were referred to TASC and were not seen in a couple of months 
because of the backlog, officers were not reporting those offenders in 
order to give TASC enough time to do the referral," said Tracy Little, a 
spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.

Instead, if months went by and TASC wasn't able to see offenders, officers 
tried to find other programs to help offenders get treatment, Little said.

Officials at TASC in Durham acknowledged that they have been short-staffed 
but said evaluations are still being done in a timely manner. They said the 
problem is with probation officers who haven't been giving them paperwork 
on everyone they're sending. That meant they didn't know whom to expect, or 
when to let probation officers know that offenders hadn't reported.

The issue arose last week when several judges in Durham complained that a 
significant number of criminals who failed to show up for court-ordered 
treatment remained on the street.

The memo states that at one time TASC staff members would pick up referral 
documents from the probation department that would tell counselors which 
offenders were ordered to report. But staff cutbacks made it impossible to 
spare a staff member to continue the pick-ups, and the referrals piled up 
in a basket at the probation office.

In a letter dated Aug. 23, TASC officials asked to change the way offenders 
were referred. The letter, which was sent to probation and the courts, 
asked officers and judges to fill out an offender referral form and send it 
to the TASC office, so workers knew whom to expect.

Sonya Brown, who oversees the state's TASC offices, says the problem is 
more pressing than just asking officials to fill out a form. She said TASC 
would have to rethink how it does its job and urged probation officers and 
TASC to work together.

Brown said the state will use Durham to test a new communication system 
designed to solve the problem by the end of October.

The memo recommends that probation and TASC officials meet in the "near 
future" to make sure communication continues.

The memo also said there appears to be "misinformation and lack of 
communication between the major criminal justice system players" in the county.

"We are not saying one meeting solved all the issues, but it opened lines 
of communication that were not as direct as they needed to be," Little said.
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