BUDGET CUTS PUT DRUG ADDICTED'S 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."