HALTING THE REVOLVING DOOR

New Rehab Program Seeks To Reform Repeat Offenders

Wilson Milla, 33, can't remember how many times he's been in the San
Francisco jail since moving from Seattle six years ago. He thinks it must
be about 10.

Milla, who this time has spent two months in jail awaiting legal
proceedings over charges that he stole a car stereo, knows the system so
well he can describe the conditions in each of the six main facilities.

Most of Milla's jail time has been for petty theft. He's never out for
long, he admits. Milla's hardly alone.

Studies show that 55 percent of those released after serving sentences in
San Francisco end up being rearrested within two years.

"We've had one individual who's been arrested 27 times for drug possession
and petty theft," said Lt. Kit Crenshaw, who heads the Police Department's
narcotics unit.

Milla, who says his alcoholism gets him into trouble, hopes this visit to
the jail will be different.

Instead of spending his days watching TV and sleeping behind bars, he
attends classes in anger management, learns techniques for getting a job
and gets substance abuse treatment in a fledgling rehabilitation program
inside The City's newest jail.

"I've got to get straight," he said. "I'm tired of going in jail and
getting out, going in and getting out. When I get out of this program, I
want to get a job."

The program, Roads to Recovery, started a month ago. It is conducted in the
airy, modern environment of the new facility behind the Hall of Justice on
Seventh Street.

There are no bars in this jail. Inmates move about in a huge round room
with glass-enclosed bunks lining the edges.

In the evening, when classes are over, it seems more like a college dorm
than a medium-security jail. In a glass-walled room on one side of the
giant circle, a group of men meet to talk about controlling anger. Other
inmates work out on exercise machines. A deputy circulates among another
group watching TV.

It is too early to tell what effect the Roads to Recovery program will
have. Studies have shown that a similar drug treatment program the jail
started for women in 1993 dropped the recidivism rate 15 percent.

"This shows you can prevent people from coming back," said Sheriff Michael
Hennessey, who said it cost him $83 a day to house someone in jail, but
only $60 a day to send that person to a drug rehabilitation program. "You
can reduce crime and create new, tax-paying citizens. "For offenders who
are committing crimes because of substance abuse problems, clearly the
cheapest approach is to put them in drug treatment," he said. "For every
dollar you put into treating these people, studies have shown you can save
$7 in the criminal justice system."