STUDY: DRUG BUSTS, VIOLENT CRIME NOT LINKED

RESEARCH: Locking up low-level offenders ineffective, Justice Policy
Institute says.

Since 1980, Ventura County has the highest arrest rate for minor drug
offenses among California's largest counties, while its violent crime
rate has increased slightly during the same period, according to a
study being released today.

Research by the Justice Policy Institute, based in Washington, D.C.,
attempts to show that an aggressive police policy against drug users
and dealers in California -- which leads the nation in imprisoning
drug offenders -- doesn't influence violent crime.

"It really shows there's not much connection to locking up a lot of
low-level drug offenders and the crime rate," said Elliott Currie, a
criminologist at the University of California at Berkeley who has
studied the issue for 30 years and sits on the institute's advisory
board. "I don't think people realize how much we use jail and prison
to deal with low-level drug offenders."

Statewide, 379 people were sent to prison for drug possession in 1980,
three from Ventura County, according to the study. Last year, more
than 12,700 were imprisoned, 170 locals.

But those numbers can't be taken at face value, said Bill Redmond,
Ventura County's supervising deputy district attorney for the general
felony unit, which includes narcotics sales and simple possession cases.

"It's so easy to generalize from raw numbers," he said. "Over 20
years, a lot has changed."

Population, for one. In 1980, the county had about 530,000 residents.
Last year, there were about 750,000.

Also, the drug of choice has gone from the more expensive and less
accessible heroin and cocaine to the cheap and easy-to-buy
methamphetamine, Redmond said.

"To look at a raw number from 1980 and compare it to today simply does
not present a fair picture," he said. "This sure makes us look awfully
harsh."

According to the study, from 1980-'84, there were 479 drug arrests in
Ventura County. During the four-year period from 1995-'98, there were
827 drug arrests, an increase of 67 percent from the earlier period.
Comparing those same periods, the violent crime rate increased 1
percent, and the overall crime rate fell 29 percent.

Ventura County authorities also arrested and incarcerated more people
for misdemeanor drug offenses than for felonies, the study shows.

"The devotion of such an inordinate amount of resources to
street-level drug enforcement takes resources away from other law
enforcement objectives that could reduce the violent crime rate," said
Vernon C. Grigg, San Francisco County's managing district attorney of
narcotics.

The study's results come as California voters decide whether to back
Proposition 36, which would send drug offenders to treatment centers
rather than to jail or prison cells.

Grigg said he believes the study shows that voters "don't have as much
to lose as they think by backing 36. It helps reinforce the argument
behind 36."

Like Redmond, Ventura County Sheriff's Cmdr. Dick Purnell doesn't buy
the study's numbers. Plus, he said, most drug offenders support their
habits by committing other crimes, such as burglary and robbery, which
does influence the crime rate.

"The need for that drug is overwhelming and they do whatever they need
to get it," he said.