PRISON SUBSTANCE ABUSE PROGRAMS LACK FUNDING

Our position is: If Indiana wants to cut its prison population, the best
investment is drug and alcohol treatment.

The Nov. 1 opening of a third unit for intensive substance abuse treatment
is a welcome development for Indiana's prisoners. For taxpayers, too.
Simply put, there's no better investment in public safety.

Here's the downside. The new treatment center at New Castle Correctional
Facility can hold only 144 inmates at a time.

While the additional beds will alleviate a backlog of inmates needing
treatment, the problem has grown far bigger than the Department of
Correction's ability to meet demand.

Consider the numbers: Eight out of 10 inmates have a history of drug or
alcohol abuse or both. The system houses 20,000 inmates, 90 percent of whom
will eventually be back on the street. At any one time, only 3,000 spots
are available for addiction treatment.

Helping these prisoners break free of substance abuse is critical to their
chances of staying out of trouble. After all, half of all crime is
committed by someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Yet, most
inmates won't get the services they need.

The DOC operates out-patient-style substance abuse programs in nearly all
of its 32 facilities, but only offenders within two years of release can
apply. Currently, about 400 are in intensive treatment programs, and
another 2,600 get help through the outpatient program. More than 2,500
prisoners who want help are on waiting lists.

While expensive (the best programs can cost $6,000 a year per inmate),
successful drug treatment saves money by dramatically lowering recidivism
rates. There's one more critical factor: Those who receive no follow-up
treatment after returning to society are more prone to fall back into old ways.

The DOC offers some substance abuse counseling to released prisoners but is
limited in what it can do.

The March 3, 2000, issue of Psychiatric News reviewed studies on drug and
alcohol treatment and recidivism rates and found, "The differences in
recidivism are dramatic. In the combined sample of 1,461 inmates from
California, Texas and Delaware, approximately a quarter of those given
intensive treatment and aftercare through a therapeutic community ended up
back in prison after three years, compared with about three-quarters of
those who received either no treatment or treatment in prison without
post-release aftercare."

The New Castle program is similar to two others the DOC runs at the
Westville and Rockville correctional facilities. Westville and New Castle
are for men and Rockville is for women. The units are therapeutic
communities, where inmates receive intensive treatment for six months to a
year.

This is by far the most effective model, studies show. And there's
additional incentive. Offenders who finish treatment can shave three to six
months from their sentences.

Funding is the problem. With its prison-building program nearing
completion, the Indiana legislature now needs to target more funds for
intensive alcohol and substance abuse treatment and follow-up.

"Demand for substance abuse greatly exceeds the available resources,"
laments Jerry Vance, director of treatment programs for the DOC. "The hope
is that inmates complete the program just as they are getting out and stay
clean."

Only if that occurs will Indiana have fulfilled the mandate of its
constitution, which says the penal code shall be "founded on the principles
of reformation, and not of vindictive justice."

For 144 men on their way to New Castle, reformation is newly possible. For
most of their buddies, it will take extreme self-discipline to break free
of alcohol and drug dependency, a highly unusual trait for those in prison
in the first place.