Pubdate: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Copyright: 2002 Richmond Newspapers Inc. Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365 Website: http://www.timesdispatch.com/ Author: Frank Green, Times-Dispatch Staff Writer SUBSTANCE ABUSE PROGRAMS CUT Legislators Trimmed $18 Million Over Two Years State legislators have cut more than $18 million in substance abuse treatment funds for parolees, probationers and juvenile offenders over the next two years. The budget, now before Gov. Mark R. Warner, has alarmed substance abuse treatment professionals as well as advocates for inmates who contend that, in the long run, cutting the treatment programs will lead to more crime. The money would have been provided under the Substance Abuse Reduction Effort, or SABRE program. Created two years ago, SABRE was touted as a balanced approach to the drug problem that addressed treatment and prevention along with tougher drug law enforcement. In each of the next two years the budget trims $4.4 million in SABRE treatment funds from the Department of Corrections, $2.3 million from the Department of Juvenile Justice and $2.5 million from the Department of Criminal Justice Services. "This is the most catastrophic cut in offender substance abuse treatment ever in Virginia," said V. Morgan Moss, co-director of the Center for Therapeutic Justice in Williamsburg. "This will affect tens of thousands of offenders with substance abuse problems at all different levels." Moss is concerned about not only the SABRE cuts but also other proposed cuts affecting such programs as drug courts, which will lose part of $3.4 million in revenue generated by court fines and fees previously designated for drug courts. He is also concerned about the Pre-Release and Post-Incarceration Services program, which will lose $2.2 million next year. "Without this important assistance for drug offenders, we will surely see a rise in the number of men and women who are imprisoned for crimes ranging from simple possession, crimes to support drug habits, and crimes that are enabled by substance abuse," said Jean Auldridge, director of Virginia Citizens for the Reform of Errants. Auldridge said CURE urges Warner to restore the SABRE and other treatment money to the budget. State Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee's subcommittee on public safety, could not be reached for comment. But in a briefing to the full committee last month he said that care was taken not to cut any of the public safety departments' "core functions." "We have given long and careful attention to these reductions and have not taken lightly our responsibility to ensure that they are fairly and judiciously applied," he said. Representatives of the three public safety departments affected by the SABRE cuts said that they will be able to continue the bulk of their substance abuse treatment programs. For instance, the treatment programs offered by the Department of Juvenile Justice in its juvenile correctional centers will continue operating. The loss of SABRE funds affects money used to buy treatment services for non-incarcerated offenders through local Community Service Boards, a spokeswoman said. And a spokesman for the Department of Criminal Justice Services said the SABRE funds would have been used to "beef up" the roughly $18.5 million the department uses to fund treatment for 36 local community corrections programs across the state each year. Nevertheless, Walter M. Pulliam Jr., head of community corrections for the Department of Corrections, said "the impact across the criminal justice system is pretty substantial." "It will not substantively reduce programs" inside the state prisons, but it will have widespread effects on community corrections programs for offenders who are not incarcerated but in need of substance abuse treatment, Pulliam said. About 64 percent of offenders in community corrections programs have substance abuse problems, he said. "One of the ways of producing public safety is reducing the dependence on drugs and if you are able to do that then maybe you can reduce criminal activity" used to support drug habits, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek