A BETTER WAY TO GO WITH DRUG OFFENDERS

Appropriators in the Minnesota Legislature were handed an enormous
bill last week. A bill for $2.8 million, in fact.

The Department of Corrections announced that its earlier estimates of
the number of prisoners who will be in custody this biennium is off by
162 -- and a lot of the unexpected growth is in drug offenders.
Because Minnesota is incarcerating many more drug offenders than we
had anticipated, and those convicted of drug offenses in Minnesota
serve longer prison sentences than just about anywhere in the United
States, the department has requested a multimillion-dollar
"supplemental" appropriation.

And the outlook for the next 10 years isn't much better. The governor
has urged the Legislature to approve $75 million in state bonds to
build an additional 1,400 prisons beds in Faribault.

The facility will be for medium-level offenders -- like those charged
with drug offenses. Further, Minnesota's Sentencing Guidelines
Commission says that over the course of the next 10 years, taxpayers
will spend an additional $300 million more than we are spending today
to maintain our state's sentencing practices.

Bills of $2.8 million, $75 million, $300 million -- as those
million-dollar invoices stack up, we think that it is time for a change.

Today, we will present an alternative to the House of Representatives'
Judiciary Policy and Finance Committee. Our alternative is both more
effective and more affordable than the ways we now sentence
Minnesota's drug offenders.

By reducing our state's drug penalties to the levels found in other
Midwestern states -- none of which is regarded as "soft on crime" --
we can stem the tide of red ink and save enough money to expand the
availability of drug treatment programs.

Drug treatment can yield impressive results. National studies have
shown that treatment can cut drug use in half among regular users and
that it reduces the likelihood of other offenses being committed by
more than 50 percent. In Minnesota, the results of the Challenge
Incarceration Program, which includes drug treatment, has even higher
rates of offenders successfully completing this program.

The potential savings to the state's "bottom line" are likewise
impressive. The Sentencing Guidelines Commission estimates that drug
treatment can be provided to offenders at one-eighth the cost of
incarcerating the same offenders in state prison. By diverting
nonviolent drug offenders to treatment, the state could avoid $31
million in extra costs each and every year.

We think that many drug offenders who now go to state prison would be
good candidates for drug treatment. Nearly 40 percent of those who
received the very longest drug sentences in our state have a "criminal
history score" of 0 -- meaning that they have had no prior run-ins
with the law. In general, these folks have serious drug problems; but
they're not hardened or violent criminals.

A more robust drug treatment program for drug offenders isn't a
panacea for Minnesota's drug problem, but we think that treating
addiction and reducing later recidivism should be key objectives of
our state's drug policy. At least before we receive another set of
multimillion-dollar bills to pay.