Pubdate: Thu, 23 Oct 2008
Source: Visalia Times-Delta, The (CA)
Copyright: 2008 The Visalia Times-Delta
Contact: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2759
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

PROP 5: OPTIONS TO JAIL TIME

Treatment of drug offenders in the criminal justice system has always 
been self-contradictory. The law stipulates punishment. The offender 
needs treatment.

Without treatment, the offender commits crimes again and escalates 
the cycle. Incarceration, however, is often the only way to keep the 
offender from succumbing to the temptations of substance abuse and 
committing more crime.

Meanwhile, some agencies estimate that as many as 70 percent of the 
nation's prisoners need drug treatment.

Proposition 5 is a measure to offer drug treatment as an alternative 
to incarceration. The object is mostly to relieve California of some 
of the expense for keeping 171,000 prisoners behind bars, which comes 
to more than $10 billion a year.

Supporters say it would cost the state $1 billion a year to offer 
rehabilitation treatment programs to drug offense prisoners. Only 
"nonviolent" offenders would be eligible, and the state would save 
about $1 billion used to keep them locked up. It costs the state 
$46,000 per inmate per year to incarcerate a prisoner, and the 
population is growing.

Proposition 5 would create a three-track drug treatment diversion 
program. It's complicated, but basically first-time offenders would 
serve no jail time or probation if they completed a treatment 
program. Second offenders could avoid prison as long as their offense 
was more than five years ago and they agreed to supervised probation 
for a year. Other offenders could be sentenced to rehabilitation by a 
judge's discretion only. Proposition 5 would also ease penalties for 
some parole violations and would offer offenders credit against their 
sentences for drug treatment programs completed.

Decriminalizes marijuana

The proposition would also make possession of one ounce or less of 
marijuana an infraction punishable by a fine of up to $100. Minors 
would not be fined for a first offense, but would be required to 
complete a drug education program. Proposition 5 essentially 
decriminalizes possession of marijuana for personal use, with no jail 
time and no criminal record.

Opponents of Proposition 5 are critical of the reduction of criminal 
penalties for a wide range of crimes -- burglary, auto theft, 
insurance fraud, identity theft -- if they are related to drug abuse. 
Proposition 5 reduces sentences of methampheamine dealers, for 
instance, from three years to six months. Opponents of Proposition 5 
also warn that it will simply shift the burden of punishing offenders 
from the state to the local level.

The local angle

Local criminal justice leaders Sheriff Bill Wittman, District 
Attorney Phil Cline and Judge Glade Roper all say Proposition 5 would 
expose the public to more criminals and burden the county with the 
cost of incarcerating and treating them. They recommend a no vote on 5.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom