Pubdate: Sun, 28 Sep 2003
Source: Gleaner, The (Henderson, KY)
Copyright: 2003 The E.W. Scripps Co
Contact:  http://www.thegleaner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1634
Note: Requires 'Letter to editor' in the subject line of e-mail
Author: Beth Smith

DRUG CRIMES, AND COSTS, SOARING

It starts with a little shopping at a local store.

A 38-year-old father of two makes the rounds picking up ingredients used to 
make meth. He is spotted by employees trained to look for this activity and 
city police are notified.

A squad car soon arrives and the suspect is taken into custody and his 
vehicle searched. Officers seize a meth lab, a quantity of meth and the 
items the man has just purchased to make more of the illegal drug.

He is arrested and lodged at the local detention facility for manufacturing 
meth.

A month later, he is indicted by a Henderson County grand jury. Four months 
after that, he pleads guilty to an amended charge of facilitation to 
manufacture meth. Another three months passes and he is sentenced to two 
years in prison.

His absence costs his family emotionally and financially.

His presence at a detention facility costs you and me.

Records provided by the commonwealth's attorney's office show that thus far 
in this year alone 115 people have been convicted here of drug charges.

The annual cost of housing 115 county inmates at the Henderson County 
Detention Center? More than $1.1 million.

At a state facility, the annual cost for the 115 would be just under $2 
million.

According to Col. Ron Herrington, chief deputy jailer at the county jail, 
the estimated daily cost of incarceration at the local facility is about 
$27.50.

The cost-per-day includes personnel, linens, food, health care, utilities, 
and programs such as GED courses, AA, drug abuse treatment and religious 
meetings, Herrington said. It also includes a program to help inmates 
transition back into the work force.

On a side note, county prisoners are supposed to pay for the time they are 
incarcerated and any medical bills incurred, Herrington said. But 
invariably many of those debts aren't paid. In fact, jail officials say 
former inmates collectively owe in the neighborhood of $1.2 million.

At a state facility in 2003, the average daily cost to incarcerate someone 
is $47.11.

Lisa Lamb, spokeswoman with the Department of Corrections, said that figure 
includes everything from salaries to the prisons' other operating expenses.

"That cost per day is strictly taxpayer dollars," she said.

Taxpayers pay the bill, Herrington said. "They are the ones who have to pay 
for running the facility."

Though it is difficult to place a price tag on the overall cost to society 
of drug trafficking and related crimes, law enforcement officials see 
first-hand that it is staggering.

As an example, Herrington said that if the local jail were emptied of those 
incarcerated because of drug charges or because they committed a crime to 
get money for drugs, virtually the entire inmate population would be gone.

"We have very few rapists and murderers," he said. "But the drugs..."

Locally, the number of drug arrests and convictions is soaring, pushing 
jail inmate numbers -- and costs -- upward.

Just three years ago, a count showed that the local jail housed 180 state 
inmates and 80 county inmates, Herrington explained. In a recent count, 
there were 170 county inmates and 52 state inmates.

"Most of it is drug related," he said.

Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Markwell said that 75 percent of his caseload 
is directly or indirectly related to drugs.

"That's a conservative estimate," he said.

A lot of crimes, such as check forgeries and burglaries, are indirectly 
related to drugs as people commit those crimes to get money to support 
their habit, he said.

Part of the cost of incarceration includes programs designed to help 
inmates hurdle drug-abuse problems and prevent them from finding themselves 
behind bars again.

Such rehab programs are not inexpensive.

Chris Block with the state Department of Corrections said that the most 
recent alcohol/drug rehab costs (for year 2000) were $2,200 per person for 
six months.

Block, administrator for the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse 
Program, said resources are limited and therefore many inmates go untreated.

"In Kentucky, 60 percent of incarcerated people and (those) on probation or 
parole meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol and drug dependency," he 
said, adding that that percentage is probably conservative.

In the recent fiscal year, 9,015 people were paroled or served out their 
sentence, Brock said. Of that number, Brock said 5,409 could have benefited 
from treatment.

So how many actually got help?

"We can only treat about 19 percent while they are incarcerated," he said. 
Nineteen percent of 5,409 comes to an estimated 1,027 inmates that get 
treatment. It's a resource problem. We don't have the resources to treat 
all who need to be treated."

The cost of drug-related crime reaches well beyond the burden it places on 
jails and prisons, Markwell pointed out. When someone is convicted of drug 
charges and sentenced to prison, it creates a costly ripple effect.

Children lose parents. Additional financial burdens are placed on the 
parent or guardian -- or social service program -- left to support those 
children.

In many cases, the workplace loses an employee and the marketplace loses 
the money the employee would have spent in the community. And on and on it 
goes.

The drug problem, Markwell sighed, "is growing exponentially."

As are the costs -- financial and societal.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens