LIFELINES ON THE LINE

Proposed Funding Cuts to Successful Drug Treatment Programs May Leave
Thousands Untreated

A year ago, Esther Guzman wanted her crack pipe more than her kids. In her
heart, she hoped to come clean for her children's sake, but her cocaine
addiction lured her to the rock.

Guzman got high just minutes before she grabbed a cab on March 14, 2007, to
appear before a judge who would decide if she could get her four children
back. A day earlier the state had taken her kids, ages 5 to 13, into foster
care because she had neglected them for months.

On Friday, Guzman walked with dozens of other moms in a "graduation"
ceremony from The Village drug treatment center in Miami, and left the
residential complex to begin a new life -- with her children. Fighting
tears, she said she will never return to the center -- except to encourage
other drug-addicted moms.

Other mothers struggling with addiction might not get that opportunity.
Faced with as much as $9 billion in state revenue shortfalls, Florida
lawmakers are considering at least $40 million in cuts to drug treatment
centers throughout Florida. The Village's program may be forced to shutter.

"Let us all pray to a power greater than ourselves that this doesn't
happen," Janet Nichols, a Village program administrator, told the graduates
during Friday's commencement.

More than two in three adults who serve time in Florida prisons are
battling a drug problem. And almost all of the parents entering the state's
child welfare system risk losing their children forever because their
addictions are more powerful than their desire to protect their children.

As lawmakers grapple with one of the worst budget crises in state history,
administrators at the Department of Corrections, the Department of Children
& Families and the Department of Juvenile Justice are considering deep
spending cuts. The result would be to lock out tens of thousands of
Floridians from treatment programs.

Deepest Cuts

Proposed cuts at the corrections department -- which could total almost $30
million -- would eliminate all substance-abuse treatment for prison inmates
and those on probation, said Gretl Plessinger, an agency spokeswoman. The
drug treatment cuts would be the deepest in agency history.

At DCF, administrators have included an $11 million cut to programs that
provide treatment services to parents at risk of losing their children. And
the juvenile justice agency is eliminating a youth drug court in Alachua
County among other possible trims.

The consequences, both agency administrators and advocates say, could be
staggering: Prison administrators predict an increase in crime.

"This would literally wipe out drug treatment both in the community and in
prison," said Pam Denmark, a DOC deputy assistant secretary. "We don't want
to lose [the programs]. We know that they work."

Said Broward Circuit Judge Marcia Beach, who oversees Drug Court in Fort
Lauderdale: "This is going to be pretty severe. Without addiction
treatment, we better be ready to build more jails and prisons. This is
turning the clock back."

Another possible consequence: Thousands of children already in foster care
may be unable to return to their parents, and some will have to be adopted
by substitute families, advocates say. Other children likely would enter
state care for the first time, and remain there.

"This is a nightmare," said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, who
presides over a drug court for parents accused of abusing or neglecting
their children, and refers hundreds of parents every year into drug
treatment in an effort to improve their parenting skills. "This will cause
a flood of parents into court, and it will cause more children to enter care."

The Department of Corrections now operates 20 substance-abuse treatment
programs in 19 prisons across the state, with a total of 1,755 beds. Last
year, DOC administrators eliminated 525 treatment beds.

In budget year 2007, 6,771 Florida inmates participated in a treatment
program. Almost 70 percent of the inmates completed the program successfully.

DOC pays for another 9,680 outpatient slots outside prison through
contracts with private-treatment programs, and 31,724 Floridians were
treated by the providers in budget year 2007. About 58 percent of the
patients successfully completed the outpatient treatment, DOC records show.

In all, DOC was asked to identify $214.7 million in cuts to the agency's $2
billion annual spending plan, said Plessinger.

DOC Secretary Walter McNeil, at a legislative session last week, told
lawmakers that eliminating addiction treatment, as well as other proposed
trims, would "compromise public safety."

Treatment Impact

In the long run, advocates say, offering drug treatment is more cost
effective than allowing addictions to persist. The Florida Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Association, an industry group, estimates it costs, on average,
$9,450 to treat an addict for seven months -- considerably less than the
$44,377 it costs to house the addict in prison for 1,004 days -- the
average sentence.

"We don't want these cuts at all," Plessinger said. "We believe drug
treatment lowers recidivism; we have numbers that say it does. Not only
does it cost less, but people don't come back to prison after treatment,
and you have fewer victims."

At DCF, eliminating the residential programs for parents would provide
about $11 million in federal public assistance dollars that could pay for
other services that currently deplete scarce state general revenue dollars.
Like prison administrators, DCF officials are strongly opposed to the trims
- -- though they acknowledge they may have no choice.

"It is a major threat," said Bill Janes, the state drug czar and DCF's
assistant secretary for substance abuse and mental health. "We are doing
everything we can to keep this money there."

"If we lose this money now," Janes said, "it would devastate our efforts to
keep these families together."

Recent studies show the vast majority of families entering state care
crumble under the weight of a drug addiction. The first three weeks in
January, for example, DCF Miami administrator Alan Abramowitz tracked about
128 children sheltered by the state. All but 33 of the kids allegedly were
being raised by a drug-abusing parent, records show.

Guzman, 30, said she refused to pick up the phone at midnight on March 13,
2007, even though she knew DCF was calling to tell her she had lost her
children. A teacher had called the state's abuse hot line to report one of
her children appeared unkempt and unhealthy, Guzman said.

'I Felt Bad for My Kids'

"I had feelings of despair, and I was angry with myself. I felt bad for my
kids. I was disappointed and disgraced."

But not enough to put down the crack pipe. Guzman got wasted only minutes
before she left for court the next day -- and promptly admitted it to her
judge, Cohen. She also said she wanted treatment, and wanted her children
back. Three weeks later, clean and sober, Guzman got her children back, but
Cohen required Guzman to continue months of treatment to avoid a relapse.
The children were allowed to remain with Guzman at The Village.

Now, Guzman is in a GED program, earning money as a waitress, and raising
her children.

"These are families with kids," Guzman said of her peers. "Maybe the
parents made choices, but the kids had nothing to do with it. The children
didn't have a choice. It's a sickness."

And, without the treatment?

"I would not be here," said Guzman, who had been a foster child herself. "I
don't know if I'd even be on this earth. My kids definitely would not be
here with mom. They would be wondering where their mommy is, like I did."