DRUG TREATMENT CUTS ARE POUND-FOOLISH

Dozens of valuable programs got cut when Virginia lawmakers were carving up
the state's shrunken fiscal pie last winter.

Gov. Mark Warner has no choice but to leave most of those cuts intact. But
one exception ought to be the millions of dollars taken from drug treatment
programs and drug courts, which focus on methods other than incarceration
for handling drug offenders.

If Warner can find a way to do so -- and that's no easy task -- he ought to
restore some $18 million in substance abuse treatment for juveniles,
parolees and probationers. He also could uncover additional millions for
support of drug courts and the Pre-Release and Post- Incarceration Services
Program.

Virginia already is housing some 30,000 criminals in state prisons, and it
is penny-wise and pound-foolish to cut programs that are most likely to
keep nonviolent offenders out of high-priced prisons and in community settings.

The problem for most of these drug-addicted people is not that they are
inherently wicked, but that they are hooked on substances that distort
their judgment and foster a desire for quick cash.

In such cases, treatment and rehabilitation are superior to punishment if
the goal is to prevent future infractions and prison time.

V. Morgan Moss, co-director of the Center for Therapeutic Justice in
Williamsburg, calls the reductions "the most catastrophic cut in offender
substance abuse treatment ever in Virginia."

In part, the statement is an indication of how little has been done to
address addiction as a contributing cause of criminal behavior. Former Gov.
Jim Gilmore made a valiant start in that direction through the Substance
Abuse Reduction Effort (SABRE) program.

But SABRE is a major target of the present cuts.

A priority for Gov. Warner ought to be keeping intact the SABRE program and
others that address criminality at its root. Better to prevent criminal
behavior stemming from illness or addiction rather than to focus on
punishment alone.