MOVES FOR KIDS IN LOCAL COURTS: TREAT ABUSERS AND PARENTS, TOO

Look closely into San Diego courts and you find persuasive arguments for
treating more drug and alcohol abusers before building more prisons.

The voice that makes this case most eloquently is that of James Milliken,
presiding judge of the Superior Court's juvenile division.

The blight of drugs from across San Diego stamps his court and those of
five other judges dealing with delinquency. (Seven other courts handle
child protection or dependency cases.) Some kids are on methamphetamine, he
says, but far more reach court through alcohol and marijuana.

Marijuana, he says, "contrary to some people's views, is making kids
dysfunctional. The stuff on the streets today is genetically engineered for
high THC content. It's cheap, plentiful and very addictive."

About 5,000 juveniles are in the delinquency system; thousands more enter
each year. Seven in eight are there for drug-related offenses.

San Diego had "an abysmal record" in managing juvenile addiction; there was
no formal treatment program. Now more than 1,000 delinquent juveniles on
probation are in treatment for nine after-school hours each week, under
court monitoring.

Juvenile crime has dropped from 4,791 felonies in 1997 to 2,700 last year
and still declines.

The protection system for younger children had also been in trouble; courts
were reuniting only one in four abused children with their families.

In 1997, Milliken took a six-month sabbatical to study juvenile justice in
other cities: "I was trying to figure out who knew how to do child
protection. I came to realize that nobody did."

Now San Diego's case-management system is being replicated by other
California counties, including Sacramento, Sonoma and Napa. San Diego
judges may order abusing parents into drug therapy, with testing and
oversight. For failure, three-day jail sentences are not uncommon.

With such a threat in the court's hand, family reunifications have doubled.
Permanent placement delays have dropped from 34 months to 14. Adoptions are up.

Still, Milliken says, the extent of foster-care mismanagement is
scandalous, and "grows as street drugs proliferate and families have
problems. Kids in foster care are developmentally damaged by the placement."

In this respect, some larger counties, including Los Angeles, "are sort of
out of control. There's an inability at court or county to get their arms
around the problem. The social significance is enormous. The foster-care
problem, in my view, will exceed the prison problem."

Four in five prisoners are behind bars, he believes, for reasons related to
drug or alcohol abuse that began early in life.

"We put the criminal population in custody," he says, "and then parole them
without requiring drug or alcohol treatment. If you leave a prisoner in his
cell without treating his addiction, he'll be high within 24 hours when he
gets out. In two weeks he may commit the same crime as three years before."

Yet on the record of addicted juveniles and parents in San Diego who are
required to complete drug treatment, Milliken brings good news:

"We are saving more money in foster-care costs than it costs in drug and
alcohol treatment of parents. We are saving more money in incarceration
costs for kids than it's costing to treat them for addiction. We will come
to the view that we should provide drug treatment for all adult criminals
in the system."

Neil Morgan's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.