REPORT CITES PROBLEMS IN DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAM

An evaluation and referral program for offenders in Durham is found to be
'severely understaffed.'

DURHAM -- State probation officials said Tuesday that because of
communication breakdowns and severe understaffing at a drug treatment
program, probation officers were waiting months to reel in criminals who
flunked drug tests or failed to show up for court-ordered drug treatment.

The findings came after Robert Guy, who runs the state's probation and
parole agency, met with the statewide director of Treatment Alternatives to
Street Crime, the program that evaluates offenders and refers them to
treatment.

A memo probation officials released summarizing the meeting said that TASC
in Durham is "severely understaffed" and that since March, the program has
been "operating with 50 percent of its usual staffing."

That meant there weren't enough people to conduct evaluations, handle
paperwork or do follow-up. As a result, probation officers stopped issuing
violations of probation for people who failed to report to TASC but still
were testing positive for drug use, the memo says.

"When they were referred to TASC and were not seen in a couple of months
because of the backlog, officers were not reporting those offenders in
order to give TASC enough time to do the referral," said Tracy Little, a
spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.

Instead, if months went by and TASC wasn't able to see offenders, officers
tried to find other programs to help offenders get treatment, Little said.

Officials at TASC in Durham acknowledged that they have been short-staffed
but said evaluations are still being done in a timely manner. They said the
problem is with probation officers who haven't been giving them paperwork
on everyone they're sending. That meant they didn't know whom to expect, or
when to let probation officers know that offenders hadn't reported.

The issue arose last week when several judges in Durham complained that a
significant number of criminals who failed to show up for court-ordered
treatment remained on the street.

The memo states that at one time TASC staff members would pick up referral
documents from the probation department that would tell counselors which
offenders were ordered to report. But staff cutbacks made it impossible to
spare a staff member to continue the pick-ups, and the referrals piled up
in a basket at the probation office.

In a letter dated Aug. 23, TASC officials asked to change the way offenders
were referred. The letter, which was sent to probation and the courts,
asked officers and judges to fill out an offender referral form and send it
to the TASC office, so workers knew whom to expect.

Sonya Brown, who oversees the state's TASC offices, says the problem is
more pressing than just asking officials to fill out a form. She said TASC
would have to rethink how it does its job and urged probation officers and
TASC to work together.

Brown said the state will use Durham to test a new communication system
designed to solve the problem by the end of October.

The memo recommends that probation and TASC officials meet in the "near
future" to make sure communication continues.

The memo also said there appears to be "misinformation and lack of
communication between the major criminal justice system players" in the county.

"We are not saying one meeting solved all the issues, but it opened lines
of communication that were not as direct as they needed to be," Little said.