MOVE SEEKS TO KEEP ADDICTS OUT OF JAIL

Initiative Would Send Nonviolent To Centers

SACRAMENTO -- With financial help from billionaire George Soros, opponents
of locking up drug users are planning a state initiative for the November
2000 ballot that would divert nonviolent drug offenders from prison to
treatment centers.

The measure, by promising to keep addicts out of jails and prisons, is a
departure from California criminal justice initiatives of the past two
decades that have focused on locking up more criminals longer, spurring a
massive expansion of state prisons.

And the measure is likely to provoke a national debate on drug policy.

"It's an attempt to say drug addiction isn't a criminal justice problem,
it's a medical problem. Let's treat it that way," said Cliff Gardner, a San
Francisco criminal defense attorney who helped draft the measure.

Some law enforcement representatives are skeptical.

Hal Barker, sheriff of El Dorado County outside of Sacramento and president
of the statewide Peace Officers Research Association, said he believes it's
important to punish people who use dangerous drugs.

"People who use cocaine and methamphetamines are pretty dangerous people,"
said Barker, who still plans to take a closer look before making a final
decision.

Supporters submitted four separate versions of their initiative to the
Secretary of State this week. Once the state has analyzed the measures, the
backers plan to go forward with just one initiative for the
signature-gathering phase, which typically costs about $700,000.

The campaign leaders in California, who formed a group called Campaign for
New Drug Policies, worked on the 1996 ballot measure to legalize marijuana
for medical use in the state.

They are virtually certain to receive money from the same trio of wealthy
people who funded the California marijuana ballot measure as well as others
around the nation, said Dave Fratello, campaign representative.

Those are Soros, the New York investor; Peter Lewis, a Cleveland insurance
titan; and John Sperling, the founder of the University of Phoenix business
college.

Soros actively promotes institutions that study alternatives to the current
war on drugs, while Sperling helped fund a successful 1996 Arizona ballot
initiative that serves as a model for the California plan.

Under the proposed measure, those convicted of nonviolent drug possession
offenses as well as parolees yanked back to prison for using drugs would be
sent to drug treatment centers in the community rather than county jail or
state prison.

If a drug user successfully completes treatment, the offender could have
his conviction erased. Otherwise, he faces jail time.

Anyone convicted of selling, producing or manufacturing illegal drugs would
not be eligible for the diversion program.

The initiative would set aside $60 million in the first year to pay for new
drug treatment programs and add an additional $120 million to the total
budget each year for the next five years. After that, it would keep the
total budget for rehabilitation at $660 million a year.

"Our theory is that this would eventually save a lot of money," said Fratello.

Proponents estimate that the measure would keep 30,000 people out of jails
and prisons each year, including 10,000 state prison parolees whose
violations consist of possessing drugs.

Currently, California has 160,000 inmates in 33 mostly overcrowded state
prisons and has plans to build a new prison.

A 1997 report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office provides some
evidence to support the proponents cost-saving projections.

The office, which scrutinizes the state budget, estimated that the state
would save $200 million a year by moving 9,000 drug offenders in state
prisons into local programs. The move would save an additional $400 million
from the cost of building new prisons.

The office's analysis of the 1998-99 parole violator problem estimated that
drug offenses comprised half the violations of the 65,396 parolees who
returned to custody in 1996.

The analysis concluded that drug rehabilitation programs are significantly
underfunded and there is "strong evidence that expansion of substance abuse
and other services for parolees" could reduce the rate at which parolees
are sent back to prison for violations.

The measure drew opposition from a conservative criminal justice policy
foundation.

"There's no need for this measure. We already have diversion programs,"
said Kent Scheidegger of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a
Sacramento law and order advocacy group.

More opposition might come from backers of the state's "three strikes" law,
which imposes tough penalties on repeat serious and violent offenders.

This initiative would exempt some drug users from the harsh sentences
imposed under three strikes. But only those offenders who have been out of
prison for at least five years before their drug possession conviction
could escape prison under the proposal.

Supporters say the measure will actually make California safer by reserving
precious prison space for violent criminals.

"Most people are very aware that non-violent drugs users are taking up jail
spaces. They don't like that and want it changed," said Fratello.

Fratello said this new drug policy needs to be enacted by initiative
because most politicians are afraid to do anything about drug use except
pass more punitive penalties.

"This is one where the people are ahead of the politicians. We've escalated
the drug war for 20 years without taking a good look at whether it works,"
he said. "This does that."