BUILDING MORE PRISONS? FOR WHO?

The Department of Corrections is disputing projections it will need
9,000 to 11,000 fewer beds because of a voter initiative that bars
many drug users from prison.

Prison officials say those estimates are overblown by half, and that
cost savings to taxpayers are overestimated as well.

They say they must expand their drug treatment programs despite
voters' approval of Proposition 36 last month. Once the initiative
takes effect July 1, it will require that those convicted of using or
possessing drugs for the first or second time be sent to community
treatment programs.

"There won't be a precipitous drop in the number of inmates as soon
as this goes into effect, but there will be a decline as more inmates
are released and more inmates are diverted to drug treatment," said
department spokesman Russ Heimerich.

The department estimates the initiative will lead to a need for about
6,270 fewer beds in five years. That compares to projections by the
nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office that the proposition will
free up at least 9,000 beds -- the equivalent of two to three prisons.

The legislative analyst predicted that will save taxpayers $200
million to $250 million annually in operating costs, plus one-time
savings of $450 million to $550 million because the state won't have
to build new prisons as rapidly.

Department officials said the savings will be less, mainly because
many drug users go to dormitory-style prison camps or community
correctional centers, most run under contract with private firms. It
costs an average $23,000 to house an inmate in prison for a year.
However, a dormitory-style prison costs $15,000 to $17,000 annually.

The projections by both the department and the legislative analyst
depend in large part on guessing whether California's 58 county
prosecutors will refuse to negotiate plea bargains with drug dealers,
knowing that a drug use or possession conviction will bring no prison
time.

Convictions for more serious charges will bring longer sentences. In
addition, some drug users who would have gone to prison will commit
new crimes while they remain free and thus wind up incarcerated for
longer periods.

Dan Carson, who wrote the legislative analyst's report, said prison
officials underestimated the benefits of treatment in keeping drug
users out of prison, as well as the number of repeat offenders who
will avoid extended sentences under the initiative.

"Basically, they assumed no affect at all from drug treatment
programs, which is kind of an awkward argument for the administration
when they've asked for hundreds of millions of dollars each year for
treatment, on the presumption treatment works," Carson said.

Three years ago, the department had just 400 drug treatment beds. It
now can provide drug treatment for 5,000 inmates at a time, and this
year's budget adds 3,000 more beds.

That's still far short of the need, said Ernest Jarman, the
department's assistant director for substance abuse programs.

The crimes committed by at least 70 percent of inmates have some
connection to drugs, such as a burglary to support a drug habit,
Jarman estimated. He projected at least 80 percent of inmates have a
current or past drug problem.

The department faces a Dec. 31 deadline to present a plan to provide
treatment to every inmate who needs it by 2005. But then it's up to
the governor and Legislature whether to go ahead with the expansion.

California has recently become a national leader in inmate drug
treatment with programs like that offered at the Northern California
Women's Facility at Stockton, said professor David Deitch.

Studies in Delaware, New York, Texas and California show intensive
prison treatment programs can be "startlingly effective," said
Deitch, who heads the federally funded Pacific Southwest Addiction
Technology Transfer Center at the University of California, San Diego.

They can cut the re-arrest rate for hard-core addicts up to 30
percent after three years -- but only if they are combined with
community-based treatment programs that support the inmates once they
leave prison.

Because of budget constraints, only half of California inmates go
through those post-release programs.

The 15-month-old Stockton program is too new to have valid recidivism
statistics. But a study last year of three California programs found
about 25 percent of those who completed post-release programs
returned to prison within two years, compared to half of those who
had treatment only in prison and two-thirds of those who had no
treatment.

"I didn't want the program, but amazingly it's paid off for me. I
have grandchildren now -- I don't need to be in prison," inmate Linda
Jones, 49, of Stockton, said during and after group therapy that
ranged in tone from gripe session to revival meeting. "I never had a
grandmother, and I want them to have one.

"I'm really out for change," said Jones, who became addicted to
heroin 14 years ago. "I'm hoping SAP (the substance abuse program)
can give me the change that I need."

The prison system's new emphasis on treatment hasn't been an easy
sell to some prison employees, said correctional counselor Velda
Dobson, who helps run the Stockton program.

"We're used to working on the correctional side, not the treatment
side," she said. In the beginning, employees would disparage what
they termed "the hug-a-thug program," she said, though things are
getting better.

"I've got skid marks down the sidewalk" from dragging some
corrections officials into supporting the program, Dobson said.