PROPOSITION 36 WOULD SABOTAGE THE STATE'S DRUG COURTS

The proponents of Proposition 36, the so-called "Drug Probation and
Treatment Initiative," are trying to convince California voters that this
initiative pits those who want to jail drug abusers against those who
believe they deserve treatment. But the real choice is between ineffective
treatment and treatment that works.

Drug treatment that works requires accountability and consequences.
Proposition 36 offers neither and threatens to undermine proven drug
treatment efforts currently under way in our state.

Since 1996, California has been diverting nonviolent drug offenders to the
state's highly successful drug court system that offers serious treatment
for drug addiction. The drug courts tackle addiction through incentives for
treatment and swift consequences for relapses without compromising public
safety. They also save taxpayer dollars. For every dollar invested in the
drug court system, taxpayers save an estimated $10 due to reduced jail
time, less criminal activity and lower criminal justice costs.

The carrot-and-stick combination of treatment and sanctions works well.
Offenders are closely supervised, ordered to undergo treatment and required
to submit to frequent drug testing -- a critical component of successful
drug treatment. Without this court-ordered drug testing and consequences
for relapses, drug abusers have little incentive to take treatment seriously.

The drug courts have an impressive 65 percent to 85 percent success rate.
Treatment programs without testing and consequences -- the kind proposed in
Proposition 36 -- typically have success rates of less than half that of
the drug courts.

Proposition 36 would sabotage California's drug courts by taking away their
ability to demand accountability and impose consequences. Although the
initiative proposes to spend $120 million a year of taxpayer money, not a
penny of it can be used for drug testing. Moreover, the initiative would
make it illegal for judges to send drug court participants to jail for drug
use -- removing sanctions for relapses.

Incredibly, Proposition 36 would also allow drug offenders to choose their
own treatment programs, ranging from "call-in" programs to out-of-state
facilities.

To deflect attention from the real issue, Proposition 36 backers are
touting a study by the Justice Policy Institute that claims California
prisons are overflowing with non-violent drug offenders. What they don't
say is that the study was bankrolled by billionaire financier George Soros,
one of the three main proponents of Proposition 36.

Local district attorneys dispute the claim that our prisons are filled with
non-violent first-time drug offenders. In an interview with The Oakland
Tribune, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rubin offered to "buy
lunch for the first person to show me a dozen people who are in state
prison for a first-or second-time possession case that wasn't pleaded down
from a sales case or that didn't have a strike prior."

According to Rubin, about half those who go to state prison for drug
possession crimes have serious or violent prior convictions and would still
be in jail if the initiative passed.

Proponents of Proposition 36 also accuse California's prison guards of
opposing drug treatment because it would reduce the prison population. The
opposite is true. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association
long ago recognized the benefits of treating drug addiction and for years
has pushed for expansion of drug treatment programs within the state prison
system.

What Proposition 36 would do is seriously weaken state laws against drug abuse.

For example, it prohibits jail or prison for virtually any person convicted
of using or possessing heroin, methamphetamines, PCP, crack, "date rape"
drugs and other illegal substances -- even abusers with a long history of
drug dealing, parole violations or past felony offenses.

What is needed is full funding and expansion of our drug court system, not
a thinly disguised decriminalization initiative that offers false hope to
drug abusers and their families desperately seeking to break the terrible
cycle of addiction.

Milliken is a San Diego County Drug Court judge.