Pubdate: Mon, 04 Dec 2000
Source: Common Sense For Drug Policy (US)
Copyright: 2000 Common Sense for Drug Policy Foundation
Contact:  3220 N Street, NW #141, Washington, D.C. 20007
Website: http://www.csdp.org/
Author: DON THOMPSON (AP)

BUILDING MORE PRISONS? FOR WHO?

The Department of Corrections is disputing projections it will need 
9,000 to 11,000 fewer beds because of a voter initiative that bars 
many drug users from prison.

Prison officials say those estimates are overblown by half, and that 
cost savings to taxpayers are overestimated as well.

They say they must expand their drug treatment programs despite 
voters' approval of Proposition 36 last month. Once the initiative 
takes effect July 1, it will require that those convicted of using or 
possessing drugs for the first or second time be sent to community 
treatment programs.

"There won't be a precipitous drop in the number of inmates as soon 
as this goes into effect, but there will be a decline as more inmates 
are released and more inmates are diverted to drug treatment," said 
department spokesman Russ Heimerich.

The department estimates the initiative will lead to a need for about 
6,270 fewer beds in five years. That compares to projections by the 
nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office that the proposition will 
free up at least 9,000 beds -- the equivalent of two to three prisons.

The legislative analyst predicted that will save taxpayers $200 
million to $250 million annually in operating costs, plus one-time 
savings of $450 million to $550 million because the state won't have 
to build new prisons as rapidly.

Department officials said the savings will be less, mainly because 
many drug users go to dormitory-style prison camps or community 
correctional centers, most run under contract with private firms. It 
costs an average $23,000 to house an inmate in prison for a year. 
However, a dormitory-style prison costs $15,000 to $17,000 annually.

The projections by both the department and the legislative analyst 
depend in large part on guessing whether California's 58 county 
prosecutors will refuse to negotiate plea bargains with drug dealers, 
knowing that a drug use or possession conviction will bring no prison 
time.

Convictions for more serious charges will bring longer sentences. In 
addition, some drug users who would have gone to prison will commit 
new crimes while they remain free and thus wind up incarcerated for 
longer periods.

Dan Carson, who wrote the legislative analyst's report, said prison 
officials underestimated the benefits of treatment in keeping drug 
users out of prison, as well as the number of repeat offenders who 
will avoid extended sentences under the initiative.

"Basically, they assumed no affect at all from drug treatment 
programs, which is kind of an awkward argument for the administration 
when they've asked for hundreds of millions of dollars each year for 
treatment, on the presumption treatment works," Carson said.

Three years ago, the department had just 400 drug treatment beds. It 
now can provide drug treatment for 5,000 inmates at a time, and this 
year's budget adds 3,000 more beds.

That's still far short of the need, said Ernest Jarman, the 
department's assistant director for substance abuse programs.

The crimes committed by at least 70 percent of inmates have some 
connection to drugs, such as a burglary to support a drug habit, 
Jarman estimated. He projected at least 80 percent of inmates have a 
current or past drug problem.

The department faces a Dec. 31 deadline to present a plan to provide 
treatment to every inmate who needs it by 2005. But then it's up to 
the governor and Legislature whether to go ahead with the expansion.

California has recently become a national leader in inmate drug 
treatment with programs like that offered at the Northern California 
Women's Facility at Stockton, said professor David Deitch.

Studies in Delaware, New York, Texas and California show intensive 
prison treatment programs can be "startlingly effective," said 
Deitch, who heads the federally funded Pacific Southwest Addiction 
Technology Transfer Center at the University of California, San Diego.

They can cut the re-arrest rate for hard-core addicts up to 30 
percent after three years -- but only if they are combined with 
community-based treatment programs that support the inmates once they 
leave prison.

Because of budget constraints, only half of California inmates go 
through those post-release programs.

The 15-month-old Stockton program is too new to have valid recidivism 
statistics. But a study last year of three California programs found 
about 25 percent of those who completed post-release programs 
returned to prison within two years, compared to half of those who 
had treatment only in prison and two-thirds of those who had no 
treatment.

"I didn't want the program, but amazingly it's paid off for me. I 
have grandchildren now -- I don't need to be in prison," inmate Linda 
Jones, 49, of Stockton, said during and after group therapy that 
ranged in tone from gripe session to revival meeting. "I never had a 
grandmother, and I want them to have one.

"I'm really out for change," said Jones, who became addicted to 
heroin 14 years ago. "I'm hoping SAP (the substance abuse program) 
can give me the change that I need."

The prison system's new emphasis on treatment hasn't been an easy 
sell to some prison employees, said correctional counselor Velda 
Dobson, who helps run the Stockton program.

"We're used to working on the correctional side, not the treatment 
side," she said. In the beginning, employees would disparage what 
they termed "the hug-a-thug program," she said, though things are 
getting better.

"I've got skid marks down the sidewalk" from dragging some 
corrections officials into supporting the program, Dobson said.
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