THE PROMISE OF PROP. 36

UCLA released a study last month on Proposition 36, the
voter-approved treatment-rather-than incarceration program, showing
that many addicts continue to fight their addictions after sentencing
and are re-arrested. The study conclusively demonstrates that
addicts, no longer warehoused in state prison at an estimated annual
taxpayer cost of $34,000, are now re-arrested earlier than their
previously incarcerated colleagues. Shocking? Hardly.

In fact, a more significant report would be if the criminal justice
system had already succeeded in its first voter-approved effort to
transform its commitment to punishment into an efficient and cost
effective system for delivery of treatment and rehabilitation services.

To skeptics, the UCLA study (www.adp.ca.gov) confirms the failure of
the treatment initiative. For them, addicts need to be put back in
jail as they are obviously not appreciative of the break voters
accorded them. Under Proposition 36, treatment is a ticket out of
jail. Who wouldn't seize and take advantage of the opportunity to
escape the physical cravings and physiological demons of substance
abuse? Addicts. That's who.

Addicts relapse. Addicts relapse over and over. When the substance of
choice is alcohol, food or sex, the indiscretion is generally
private. The damage, while potentially severe, is often contained
within the family unit.

Drugs are different. Society has elected to designate possession or
use of certain substances as criminal. Yet, incredibly, or perhaps
motivated by practicality, state voters realized that the war on
drugs -- or more accurately, the war on Americans with drugs -- is
unjustifiably expensive. And so, Proposition 36 was enacted.

As a result, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
is no longer required to house persons convicted of possession of
forbidden substances, at least initially. A lesser known provision of
Proposition 36 excludes addicts once they have twice violated their
probationary convictions. Violate your Proposition 36 probation with
a non-drug related violation and you can be excluded from the
program, and maybe sent to prison.

According to prison census data figures, more than 14,000 inmates, or
8 percent of the prison population, are serving prison sentences for
the crime of simple possession of a controlled substance.

Critics of Proposition 36 complain that some addicts never show up
for treatment. Others drop out or show little or no interest in their
assigned regimen. Why wait and waste money, they say, before moving
to the next step, incarceration? For idealists, the answer is found
in those who succeed.

While the UCLA study reveals the relatively low percentage of
offenders who graduate from the program (25 percent), the promise
remains. Many offenders do make important strides. The fact that 50
percent of probationers re-offended within 30 months, means that half
did not. Half made progress.

Practical considerations support the program's idealistic
underpinnings and continued worth. The state is grappling with an
overpopulation of prison inmates, and many county jails are forced to
release convicted inmates early.

Does it make sense to apply additional pressure to these institutions
because numerous addicts continue to prove the wearisome and lengthy
path of overcoming addiction? The penal system is a blunt tool, and
incarceration is a costly alternative. Given the cost of keeping one
person in prison for one year, Proposition 36 treatment costs are
cheap by comparison. In a different context, the message and solution
remains the same: Give treatment a chance.