Pubdate: Sun, 25 Mar 2007
Source: Wichita Eagle (KS)
Copyright: 2007 The Wichita Eagle
Contact: http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/editorial/4664538.htm
Website: http://www.wichitaeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/680
Author: Tim Potter, The Wichita Eagle
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

FEW FUNDS FOR PAROLEE DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT

At the same time that the Kansas Department of Corrections is 
emphasizing efforts to help thousands of parolees succeed after 
release from prison, it is funding substance abuse treatment for only 
a fraction of them.

Although experts say that generally two-thirds of offenders have a 
history of substance abuse, the department has provided no money for 
community-based substance abuse treatment for two budget years in a row.

So substance abuse -- one of the biggest problems among offenders and 
a threat to public safety -- is receiving some of the least funding 
from the department at a time when the investment might count the 
most, experts say.

Parolee substance abuse is particularly important to Wichita. A 
November 2006 Department of Corrections document titled "Offender 
Risk Reduction and

Reentry Plan" notes that Wichita has the most parolees and that 
substance abuse is one of their biggest problems.

As of Monday, there were 5,621 parolees statewide, including 1,317 in 
Wichita -- and the numbers are generally rising, because parolees are 
being sent back to prison at a lower rate even when they repeatedly 
violate conditions of their parole, including the prohibition against drug use.

The department says it has embraced the idea that the best way to 
solve parolees' problems is to work with them in the community, yet 
for years now it has cut programs to help offenders prepare for 
release and succeed afterward.

In any effort to help parolees survive life after prison, substance 
abuse treatment after prison has "got to be key," said Ron Iacovetta, 
a Wichita State University associate professor who studies corrections issues.

For many offenders, substance abuse is "the ingredient that triggered 
a lot of crime to begin with," Iacovetta said.

Peter Ninemire spent 10 years in federal prison for marijuana 
cultivation, then went on to earn a master's degree and now works as 
a substance abuse counselor in Wichita. Ninemire said treatment in 
the community is crucial because outside prison is "where the rubber 
meets the road."

It's in the community where released convicts encounter obstacles, 
stresses and bad influences, Ninemire said. "Anybody can talk a good 
game in prison," he said, because there is so much structure there.

Police say drug addiction is what drives many offenders to break into 
homes and steal things. And it figures heavily in domestic violence, 
one of the most common crimes with one of the widest impacts on society.

But the sad irony, Ninemire said, is some people think that treating 
parolees' drug and alcohol addictions is soft on crime when in fact 
it is "the best anti-crime tool that we have."

Iacovetta said the department's budget is "a clear indication so far 
that they're not appropriating the funds to deal with the problem."

"To say they're doing it, and to end up doing it, is actually two 
different things," he said."... It takes money first."

Five years ago, the Department of Corrections joined a highly 
publicized forum at WSU to share its plans for helping parolees to 
re-enter communities in ways that helped them and protected the 
public. But since then, funding for offender programs -- in prison 
and after release from prison -- dropped steeply, then stayed flat.

The governor's office is proposing the first significant funding 
increase in years. There's no guarantee the Legislature will approve 
it, although there appears to be support.

The department provided the funding data in response to questions The 
Eagle has raised over Alfred Brown, a parolee with a history of drug 
abuse who was charged last month with nine counts of sex crimes 
against two Wichita girls.

Optimistic outlook

The department head, Secretary of Corrections Roger Werholtz, said he 
hopes funding will start improving over the next year with the 
increase proposed by the governor's office.

So far, the department has developed and promoted detailed plans for 
parolee reintegration, gotten its staff to embrace the approach and 
begun reintegration efforts on a pilot basis, Werholtz said.

Treatment funding has fallen over the past seven years as a result of 
painful budget cuts the department made, Werholtz said.

The department can't restore the money in one year; it will be sought 
in phases, Werholtz said.

Department spokesman Bill Miskell said the agency "would like to have 
more money" for substance abuse treatment.

Without money set aside to treat parolees, Miskell said, "most of the 
offenders who are on supervision in Kansas now who need evaluation 
and treatment for substance abuse are accessing the same limited 
community resources that many other people are accessing. Those are limited."

Parolees typically pay for treatment the same way anyone else does; 
often it's on a sliding fee scale, said Frances Breyne, a department 
spokeswoman.

At the same time, many parolees have difficulty getting and 
maintaining jobs. Even paying a $20 treatment fee can be difficult 
for them, Ninemire said.

An explanation of the treatment and funding challenge can be found in 
a February 2004 document by the Offender Reentry Task Force, a joint 
project of the city of Wichita, Sedgwick County and the Department of 
Corrections. It notes that in fiscal year 2001, "62 percent of the 
releasing offenders had received substance-abuse treatment while in 
prison. However, due to budget reductions, the majority of the 
substance-abuse treatment available in the prisons has been eliminated....

"Today there are not treatment services available in the community, 
beyond very limited transitional therapeutic community programs... ."

Things have improved since then, Werholtz said, with substance abuse 
counseling available at the day reporting center in Wichita for up to 
100 offenders, and at a day reporting center in Topeka, which treats 
up to 40 offenders. A Shawnee County re-entry program provides access 
to treatment services for up to 50 offenders.

One of the Wichita parolees who was sent to a day reporting center 
and received substance abuse counseling is Alfred Brown, 56. 
According to a parole officer's log and other records, Brown, who had 
been convicted of felony drug crimes, tested positive for cocaine 
five times within one month in 2005 while going to the day reporting 
center. He sporadically attended treatment, records show. Last month, 
prosecutors charged Brown with sex crimes against two girls.

Treatment options

Werholtz also noted other treatment services available in communities 
for people needing substance abuse help. One of the programs is 
through the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. There 
is some treatment for motorists who have four or more DUI offenses. 
And under a 2003 law, Senate Bill 123, drug treatment is mandatory 
for people convicted of drug possession who have no history of 
violent crime, but it's not designed for parolees.

Beverly Metcalf, who heads Mirror Inc., a nonprofit organization that 
provides substance abuse treatment and community-based correctional 
services across the state, said she worries that parolees may not be 
getting treatment because funding has been cut so much in recent 
years and because the treatment system has limited slots.

Metcalf said she wonders if part of a lack of support for funding is 
a general misconception that treatment doesn't work.

Ninemire, the former offender who now helps offenders as a substance 
abuse counselor, said that, unfortunately, a parolee's best chance 
for getting treatment is to get into trouble and be ordered to the 
day reporting center or some other treatment program.

The biggest need, he said, is residential drug treatment, "where we 
could give people more than three days in detox... because many 
people need longer interventions." Without longer-term care, he said, 
"they don't even stand a chance."

Goal is to restore money

According to figures the Department of Corrections provided to The 
Eagle, in fiscal year 2005, only $155,071 out of the $29.4 million 
budget for community-based programs went specifically for substance 
abuse treatment.

In fiscal 2006 and in the estimated budget for the current budget 
year -- fiscal 2007 -- there was no money budgeted for substance 
abuse treatment.

The governor's office has requested $460,000 for fiscal 2008, and 
Werholtz said he is optimistic the Legislature will approve it. A 
separate proposal would increase funding for prison-based substance 
abuse treatment from around $1 million in the current budget to 
nearly $1.4 million.

Rep. Michael O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, chairman of the House Judiciary 
Committee, agreed that it appears there is legislative support for 
more funding.

"We have to step up to the plate and get some funding there, and I 
think the timing is right," said O'Neal, who has served on a task 
force dealing with corrections issues.

"The best policy is a safe re-entry program," O'Neal said.

It appears that inmates get good support while in prison, he said.

"What they really need is help on the outside," he said.

In the late 1990s, department figures show, funding rose sharply for 
the full range of programs to help offenders prepare for release and 
be successful after leaving prison. The programs included vocational, 
academic and special education and treatment for sex offenders and 
substance abuse.

But starting in fiscal 2001, the funding plummeted before leveling 
out in fiscal 2004 through 2007.

Although funding would increase sharply under proposals for fiscal 
2008, even if the money is approved, it would be significantly below 
the levels of the late 1990s.

The goal, Werholtz said, is to restore programs that were gutted.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman