Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jun 2001
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.sjmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: ED POPE, Mercury News

DRUG POLICY STUDY FAULTS COUNTY

With A New Drug Law About To Go Into Effect, A Drug Policy Center Has Rated 
Bay Area Counties' Readiness. Santa Clara County Received A "D-Plus."

With only days to go before the state must begin diverting non-violent drug 
offenders from jail to treatment, the new law's major advocates like what 
they see in the Bay Area -- except in Santa Clara County.

Bragging rights for being most prepared go to San Francisco. San Mateo 
County isn't far behind, and Alameda is above average, but Santa Clara is 
barely passing, according to The Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation.

That conclusion was blasted by Santa Clara officials, who say the criteria 
used in assigning "grades" to individual counties have little to do with 
how effective their programs will be.

The Washington, D.C.-based center, which was one of the principal backers 
of Proposition 36, evaluated the readiness of the state's 11 most populous 
counties to tackle the new system, which takes effect Sunday.

The proposition was approved by 61 percent of California voters last 
November, and prescribes treatment for first- and second-offense drug 
users, most of whom would have gone to jail or prison. An estimated 37,000 
offenders each year in California will get treatment under the initiative 
- -- up to 6,000 of them in Santa Clara County.

The law sets aside $120 million a year for five years to support 
rehabilitation of abusers, and the center has determined that counties 
should devote at least 83 percent of their allotment to treatment.

Transition readiness

"Essentially what we're looking for in our evaluation is how well each 
county is making a transition from a criminal-justice approach to a 
public-health approach," said Lindesmith spokeswoman Shayna Samuels on 
Wednesday.

The initiative's advocates don't like money devoted to probation services 
and oppose urine testing as anything but a treatment tool. The Lindesmith 
center also has no official capacity in implementing the law.

On the center's "report card," San Francisco got an A, San Mateo an A-minus 
and Alameda a B.

Santa Clara got a D-plus. Or, as Glenn Backes, the center's national 
director of health and harm-reduction programs put it: "D, as in 
dangerously unprepared."

The center condemned Santa Clara County because it has devoted only 70 
percent of its funds to direct treatment, didn't appoint a public-health or 
treatment group as its lead agency, didn't hold community forums or 
specifically invite minorities into the planning process and, in 
Lindesmith's view, loaded its planning process with people from criminal 
justice.

Santa Clara County officials came out spitting.

"I don't think the report card reflects the uniqueness of our community or 
the quality of the plan we're putting in place," said Alice Foster, 
chairwoman of the county planning committee. Beyond treatment, she said, 
the county is devoting funds to literacy classes, health needs and 
vocational training, "because we know that a person with a substance abuse 
problem comes with other types of life issues."

"It's very inaccurate," said Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley, who has 
headed up the county's drug court for years. "Anyone has a right to 
criticize, but what's in the report should be correct."

Incorrect implication

The implication that funding here has gone to the courts or criminal 
justice is incorrect, officials said. Only 9 percent goes to new probation 
services. The district attorney and public defender also have agreed to a 
non-adversarial approach when offenders enter the system.

"We have as high a level of collaboration as any county in the state," said 
John Larson, spokesman for the county department of alcohol and drug services.

The county has created something unique in the state, according to Manley 
and Foster, a system of case managers who will help clients get into 
treatment, take medications, get housing and find jobs -- just "help them 
get it together."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom